The Met apologises to a bicycle owner who filmed a driver utilizing his telephone
- Dave Clifton, 56, noticed a Range Rover driver holding a telephone in Belgravia
- Had been charged with driving a bicycle on a highway with out due care and a spotlight
The Metropolitan Police have apologised to a bicycle owner who reported a Range Rover driver for utilizing a cellular on the wheel, however then discovered himself accused of breaking the regulation.
Dave Clifton noticed the driving force holding a telephone when he was biking by means of Belgravia, London, and filmed the incident on his helmet digital camera.
The 56-year-old submitted the video to the police – however they claimed he had been biking on the incorrect aspect of the highway in the direction of an oncoming bike.
He had been charged with driving a bicycle on a highway with out due care and a spotlight after officers claimed he may ‘pose a hazard to different highway customers’ – one thing which Clifton descried as ‘ludicrous’ and ‘malicious’.
His trial was scheduled to begin on Wednesday at Lavender Hill magistrates’ courtroom, however police dropped the case a day earlier than and apologised to the bicycle owner for any ‘stress and inconvenience’ it had induced.
The incident happened on Pont Street in Belgravia, London
A Met supervisor contacted Mr Clifton to say his footage had been reviewed and the case had been deserted.
A spokesperson for the Met Police stated: ‘We have apologised to Mr Clifton for the stress and inconvenience attributable to this matter.’
The footage submitted was now getting used as an inside information to its public reporting workforce, the Met added.
In the video, Clifton is seen biking alongside a road in Belgravia at about 1.30pm in August final 12 months when the Range Rover is caught entering into the wrong way.
He then turns round to movie the driving force utilizing the telephone on the wheel.
Clifton advised the Evening Standard: ‘I used to be biking alongside Pont Street behind a van. I appeared behind me and, when i appeared again, the van had veered into the taxi rank to keep away from a motorcyclist that was on the incorrect aspect of the highway, so I braked and obtained out the best way.
‘I did not suppose something of it, motorcyclists do that on a regular basis. But the Metropolitan Police stated that I used to be on the incorrect aspect of the highway.’
Clifton added that he was disillusioned with the Met’s letter telling him the case had been deserted as a result of it failed to incorporate an admission that ‘somebody made a mistake’.
He was additionally stunned the pressure introduced legal costs towards him moderately than a hard and fast penalty discover.
