An impatient driver who close passed a cyclist bagged himself two convictions for the price of one after spotting and abusing the victim on the train home from court.
The bizarre story, which road.cc reader Tony described as a “mini saga”, began 16 months ago, in April 2024, when he was close passed by a driver while cycling to work. Having reported his camera footage to the police, Tony was called to Stratford Magistrates Court in March 2025 as officers decided to take action against the motorist, who denied wrongdoing.
Seemingly after learning the cyclist had indeed turned up to give evidence the driver, Danny Elie, pleaded guilty and was sent on his way with three penalty points and a fine and costs of £400.
Where things took a strange turn was on the journey home, Tony catching a train from West Ham station when Elie confronted him and began hurling abuse.
“On the train home from court a guy sat down opposite me,” Tony recalled. “I thought this was odd as it was fairly quiet, but so be it. He then started talking so I took out my earphones, and he said he was the one in court. He then proceeded to harass and hurl abuse at me, calling me ‘nonce’ over and over again. I got my phone out to try and record, but he started trying to grab it so I put it away.
“I moved away, but he followed me, so I put my feet up on the seat opposite, and he stood there hurling abuse, ranting about ‘bloody cyclists’. As we approached a station a few stops further along he moved down the aisle and as he passed me he poured water over me. Luckily mostly over my shoulder and down the back of my coat.”
Tony explained that “thankfully” he still had a couple of stops to go after Elie got off at Rainham and that once he was home he reported the incident to the British Transport Police.
Despite the train operator being unable to provide the police with CCTV, as it was down in that carriage, Elie was charged with Intentional Harassment, Alarm, or Distress, contrary to Section 4A Public Order Act 1986.
It all meant that on 31 July he pleaded guilty again and was ordered to pay a fine of £397, costs of £157 and compensation of £100. As Tony concluded having done the maths, “It means his dangerous driving has cost him over £1,000. A costly lesson for this individual.”
“If he was to abuse/harass me again within the next 24 months then he would face witness intimidation charges, with all the previous offences taken into account,” Tony continued.
The bizarre saga lasted 16 months from the initial incident of the morning of 12 April 2024. That happened along the A1306 where Tony decided, with lorries parked on one side of the lane, to ride in primary position to stay safe away from parked vehicles and avoiding a hatched area with “an incredibly poor road surface”.
“I was in primary as I had previously had drivers squeeze past, but hadn’t considered someone would be stupid enough to force and undertake, but that’s what this driver did, forcing me to slow in the process,” he explained.
Reporting footage to police forces is notoriously hit and miss and often viewed as something of a ‘postcode lottery’ Some forces are very hot on taking action on careless and dangerous driving footage, others less so and more likely to take no further action or issue a warning letter.
Had the driver accepted the Notice of Intended Prosecution the case would not have gone to court and he could have expected a far less severe punishment, perhaps even a driving awareness course or lesser fine. We’ve got a feature on everything you need to know about recording quality footage and what to do if you capture a near miss, close pass or collision.
21 thoughts on ““It’s cost him over £1,000”: Driver’s court date for close passing cyclist ends with bonus harassment conviction… after he abused victim on the train home”
Bloody cyclists making me do
Bloody cyclists making me do this shit!
don simon fbpe wrote:
No, not making, forcing him to do shit.
Given that the driver didn’t
Given that the driver didn’t think he’d done anything wrong, he should have had his licence revoked too as he clearly isn’t fit to be behind the wheel.
you think that would stop
you think that would stop them driving ?
I love a story with a happy
I love a story with a happy ending!
An aggressive driver with low
An aggressive driver with low intelligence – A bad combination.
Cycloid wrote:
A bad but all to common combination.
Cycloid wrote:
I thought all aggressive drivers have low intelligence? Or is it just an emotional regulation problem (c.f. toddlers) that they’ve got?
Maybe the most dangerous
Maybe the most dangerous thing on the roads is an aggressive driver with high intelligence. A cold calculating psychopath. Fortunately really rare. I need a degree in criminal psychology to pursue this line of thought!
Cycloid wrote:
But what benefit would they gain from their aggression? Surely an intelligent driver would see that they’re going to be held up at the next red light by all the other drivers, so what do they gain from it? Obviously, the stupid ones can’t figure out why they’re getting stuck in traffic and so just lash out at any easy target.
Presumably they’d realise
Presumably they’d realise that with a little impulse control and forward planning (e.g. moving to Scotland and remembering to say “I have no memory of that” if the police ask them if they did it) they can indulge their aggressive tendencies by frightening, maining or even killing people with very little come-back?
We don’t want the asshole,
We don’t want the asshole, let him move somewhere else – Moscow perhaps?
The stupid thing is that
The stupid thing is that taking him to court will have likely cost thousands of pounds and despite him not pleading guilty he still gets a laughable punishment. I say he didn’t plead guilty because he didn’t. He went to court and only changed his please at the last minute to avoid more punishment when the guy turned up.
The fact he then abused and assaulted him on the train afterwards you might think suggests someone who has learned nothing and is a danger to others on the road. Nope. Same punishment as someone who was caught doing 34 in a 30.
This is why drivers are shit. This is why our roads are dangerous.
mctrials23 wrote:
The fact he then abused and assaulted him on the train afterwards you might think suggests someone who has learned nothing and is a danger to others on the road. Nope. Same punishment as someone who was caught doing 34 in a 30.
This is why drivers are shit. This is why our roads are dangerous. — mctrials23
I generally agree, but I think your last paragraph isn’t quite correct.
Our drivers are shit because mass motoring as we have allowed it to be. We aim to have much of the adult population be able to drive motor vehicles (“right to drive”) after a “rite of passage” / “joining the club ceremony” (driving test) – which for most is never repeated! We have told everyone (schooling, advertising…) that the roads are for them to drive on. Indeed getting a car is seen as an aspiration and travelling about is seen as empowering. Speed is a good, motor vehicles are places to relax / socialise / be entertained in – and indeed it’s totally normal to be angry if they’re “held up”. I don’t see “careful driving” or “slow but steady progress” featured much, never mind celebrated, in TV, films, adverts…
Our roads are dangerous because mass motoring – all of the above (trivialising the action of driving) and the large numbers of powerful and fast motor vehicles at > (say) 20mph AND we think it’s fine to mix vulnerable road users with those volumes and speeds of traffic. (Our places are also crap because we have so much space given over to motor vehicles, static and moving.)
Mass motoring could be less dangerous – but only if the numbers are reduced and the driving is more strictly controlled. And it’s a sliding scale – operating a motor vehicle will continue to be some danger to others until you’re essentially doing it in complete isolation.
Merely nicking – or even sentencing – a greater fraction of driving offenders would be good. But it will continue to do very little while the two points above are true. Because while there are a few real wrong’uns who undoubtably cause a lot of carnage, tens of millions of normal people times a small but non-zero risk of causing injury or death because human failibility times the power of a motor vehicle equals a significant amount of damage, injury and death.
This case clearly
This case clearly demonstrates the mindset of some drivers, that drivers are always right and cyclists always wrong and nothing is ever their fault. No reasonable person would have done what they did, both the driving and the harrassment, but the overwhelming feeling of entitlement and being hard done by, makes them irrational.
Is it time that the driving test included a psychological element to weed out people who are not mentally fit to be in charge of a lethal weapon in public?
I’d say it’s time the driving
I’d say it’s time the driving test included a mandatory section on cycle training. I’d also make this compulsory for anyone renewing a licence. Those unable to ride a bicycle would have the option of a tricycle or power assist hand cycle.
Great, but given that all
Great, but given that all drivers are also trained on stuff like not speeding / not driving on pavements and then immediately abandon those restrictions on passing…
(Not saying we shouldn’t have this – in fact I’d like this kind of training to feature not just in the driving test!. Just saying that it will have approx. zero impact – like all the “don’t speed” / “don’t drive like a berk” stuff that already gets dropped – until many/most people are regularly riding bikes throughout their lives and thus the “training” is repeated regularly throughout life.)
I used to commute down this
I used to commute down this road: https://maps.app.goo.gl/B9YmUXbTtGnk8ntH7
Drivers would do what you can see on Google street view here. Because of the road bump patterns, drivers would drive swerving in and out of the bike lane to avoid the humps. Frequently they’d swerve into my path as I cycled behind, as they didn’t even think to check their mirror as they did it. Worse was that I actually saw a learner driver doing it with the instructer seemingly having no problem with them swerving into the bikelane. I know it’s only a crappy dashed line, but you should still not be driving so irratically like that.
I particularly like how if
I particularly like how if you ride in the bike lane, you’ve got a choice of the cambered edge of the hump or the sunken drain cover and surrounding pothole. 🤦♂️
I don’t think it’s “drivers”,
I don’t think it’s “drivers”, per se. I think the problem is people. Some people are just ready to fight everyone, regardless. Mode of transport is irrelevant.
I am sure the driver was
I am sure the driver was triggered by the cyclist taking the primary position as he would have thought there would have been plenty of room to get past if the cyclist rode to the left.
Almost all drivers seem to think like that although only a subset react aggresively.
More education would be a good thing. Very few drivers are aware of the 2022 Highway Code changes. Maybe more of the old style public information films backed up with enforcement in the period afterwards would be the answer.