Episode 10 Dom on the Spot

Never before have so many on-the-spot fines

been issued in Britain.

We're going to be following the men and women who hand out

over £30 million worth of tickets every month.

-Oops.

-Round here, they're an absolute blight.

-I'm at 104 now.

-Wow!

-That is disgusting!

-Just walk away!

-Grrr!

'For behaviour that's downright dangerous...'

That was stupid for these sort of conditions, wasn't it?

'..simply selfish...'

Look at the mess you've created in the street!

How is that our fault?

'..or just...'

What is he doing?

'..well, plain silly.'

What a doughnut!

'We'll be revealing the cost of their bad behaviour..'

-£100 fine.

-Pays £260.

-Ouch.

'..and how this could affect you.'

-I'll give them a punch.

-You want to see me kick off?

'The police are on it...'

-What the...?!

-Sir!

'..the parking wardens are on it...'

They should be thanking us for being here.

'..and I'M on it.'

Careful! It's a 30mph limit here!

'I'm Dom Littlewood.

'And I'm On The Spot.'

'Today, I try to keep a steady hand on the trigger

'and a sharp eye on the fines.'

-That said zero.

-Nope.

I'd never make a good cop.

'We meet a dirt detective with a stinky problem.'

Urgh. Air!

Do you think Mulder and Scully ever did something like this?

I'm riding shotgun with the traffic cops from Wiltshire Police today

to find out what actually happens out on the road.

And I've been warned to expect the unexpected.

Misbehaving motorists, watch out.

Sergeant Warren Knight is on your tail.

From his stealth cop car,

he has the power to issue a whole host of on-the-spot fines.

But one of the most common has got to be the speeding ticket.

Get one of those and you could be coughing up £100.

And as the evening rush hour dies down, people's speeds seem to go up.

Which means it's time for Warren to get the big guns out.

-Have you used...? Have you seen this working?

-No, I haven't.

It looks very interesting. It looks like...

Shall we get out the car? I'll show you.

Warren's kindly offered to show me how it works.

I mean, how hard can it be?

-If you look through there, you'll see a little red dot.

-Yes.

-OK?

-Put the red dot on a number plate and press the trigger.

-OK.

-OK?

See how you get on.

'Sounds simple enough.'

DEVICE BUZZES AND BEEPS

Try not to move it. Keep the red dot on the number plate.

The number plate that you want.

-All I'm getting is EO1.

-That's an error.

Cor, it's not easy, is it?

'OK, let's see how the expert does it.'

There you go. 98. So he can have a ticket.

And, within seconds,

the pro has clocked the first speed demon of the day.

SIREN WAILS

We know they're in a VW Golf in the outside lane.

Probably quite far ahead as well, if they were going at that speed.

And now it's down to Warren to catch up with a car

that's just been clocked at almost 100mph.

That's a very close speed to an instant ban as well, isn't it?

Yeah, it is.

Anyone going over 100mph could be eligible for a driving ban.

Could this be Warren's first fine of the day?

-You've got to be so observant, haven't you?

-Yeah.

'We're in hot pursuit.'

We manage to get alongside.

And it's time for Warren to make himself known.

And for this driver to face the music.

Is there any reason that you can give me

why you were travelling so fast?

-No, there isn't.

-OK. Do you have any points on your licence?

If you come and sit in the car,

-have you got your driving licence with you?

-Er, yeah.

-OK, cool.

This guy's been stopped. He was caught doing 98.

What happens now, obviously, I don't know.

This chap was clocked by Sergeant Knight doing 98mph on the motorway.

Anyone caught doing 96mph or more is eligible for a driving ban,

so will he be losing his licence,

picking up some points, or receiving a fine?

-Technically, at that speed, you can get disqualified.

-Right.

-OK?

The way I propose to deal with it is by way of a fixed penalty ticket.

-Yeah.

-OK? Three points on your licence and a £100 fine.

-Yeah.

So I'm using my discretion not to take you to court

because that is, you know, right on that threshold.

It's a £100 fine.

So he's narrowly escaped a driving ban.

I do this road every single day, pretty much. Six days a week.

Going home to watch football. You know, there's no excuse.

And back on the road, it's not a car that catches Warren's eye.

It's people taking a stroll on the side of the dual carriageway.

Right, I'll probably have to turn round and just deal with those,

because pedestrians on a major carriageway can be a hazard.

You've got to be crazy to do that, haven't you?

'Warren can't issue pedestrians on a dual carriageway with a fine,

'but he can't let this one go without having a few words.'

It's a busy dual carriageway.

There is no footpath, so they just need to be mindful of that.

Are you carrying on up the road or are you staying on the A419?

I would never advise you walking on the 419, cos I've dealt with...

-Sorry.

-It's not about "sorry".

It's about your safety, more than anything else.

All right, no problem.

Warren gives the walkers some friendly, very sensible advice.

If, like me, you're outraged by littering

then this will make your blood boil.

Pendle's litter detective, Jon Yurek,

has just discovered a big pile of rubbish, but is it an illegal dump?

I don't know how many days' worth of bin bags they've put out in one go.

I'm going to have to make a quick phone call

and check when the last time the guy came round to collect the bin bags.

Cos if he's done...

If this has been out for more than a couple of days,

then the person who has put them here is clearly

abusing the facilities, abusing the rights he's been given.

Hello?

Right. OK.

I need one of you, OK, either one of you,

I don't really care who it is now, I need a van with green search bags.

I'm at the rear of A Centre.

It's not bin collection day, so this lot has been flytipped.

If Jon can discover who left it there,

they could be in line for a fixed penalty of £400,

and failing to pay that could get them a whopping £2,500 fine.

Jon's partner in grime, Lesley,

has arrived to try and help him find the culprit.

So now we're going to have to rip open these black bin bags,

find out if there's any information as to where they've come from,

and then deal with it.

Right, time to get digging.

I don't envy them, but there is a fine at stake.

Put them in these green bags, because when we rip open the bag,

everything will just go spilling everywhere, so we contain it

and then if you look inside, you can see it's a black bin bag

and inside the black bin bag is carrier bags tied up.

Even though this looks disgusting,

I call this an environmental autopsy.

Oh, God! And he does, as well!

Rather you than me, Jon.

I can almost smell that from here.

-Urgh. Air!

-SHE CHUCKLES

Urgh! Do you think Mulder and Scully ever did something like this?

I think it's more Agent Mouldy, where you're concerned, Jon.

The dirty work has paid off.

Buried amongst the horror are some all-important clues

as to whose rubbish this is.

See that? That's a number one. That's a number two.

So, European. Eastern European writing.

An expenses form.

So what I've got to do is I'll have to go through another bag,

see if that name appears in another bag and if it does...

this person has either come from this address and dumped it here,

or possibly he's moved from wherever he has to here.

We've got to make sure that it all links up somehow.

There's no stone left unturned or bin bag un-emptied

in the search for vital evidence

that could lead to a fine.

Jon's in luck. He's not only found a name,

but a full rundown of the possible culprit's past employment.

Right. Well, this is his CV, it's got his name. OK.

It's got his address. It's got his mobile number.

It's got everything I need to know about this person.

Enough to become him for the day, you know?

Jon's certainly mucked in to try and find the culprit,

but has he done enough?

There's eight bin bags dumped on the street,

unsorted waste,

and three forms of ID pointing to an address.

Is it enough for a fine?

Over to you, Jon.

If the names, er, verify that that person

lives at this address,

we'll write to them, invite them in for an interview,

to which we'll then have to ask him the questions as to

why he's put out so many black bin bags here

and we'll let the senior Environmental Crime Officer

decide what will happen to him with regards to

a fine or a caution.

If Jon can make this stick, and not just to his gloves,

by tracing the name and address he's found in the rubbish

then there could be a £400 fine on the way to them.

In rural Buckinghamshire, the local council have a problem -

the county's country lanes and beauty spots

are being blighted by rubbish.

Fly-tipping is a serious issue.

Anyone caught can be fined, and serious offenders face court,

possible jail time and receive a fine of up to £50,000.

David Rounding is an environmental waste officer at the county council.

It's his job to take on the big tippers.

Clearing all this up costs taxpayers in England £50 million a year.

It's an ongoing, apparently never-ending problem,

and it costs a lot of money to pick up,

so every time we have to clear something like this,

it's one less set of textbooks for a class of schoolchildren.

What we're doing now, with more camera work,

is we can target places like this.

People might wonder, are there cameras everywhere?

The county council catches and convicts a fly-tipper,

on average, every week.

Some people ignore them, but that's their mistake,

because they mean what they say.

We catch people regularly,

so it's a mistake to fly-tip in Buckinghamshire.

This is a beauty spot - that's how we want it.

We will keep on taking people to court if they keep dumping.

People will get the message in the end. They have in the past.

They will stop.

The key to prosecuting serial offenders

is to catch them in the act,

and, in David's neck of the woods, they do it with covert cameras.

The cameras are whirring 24 hours a day,

and back at council HQ, the team are watching in.

Will they catch a tipper in the act?

There's a hefty fine ready and waiting if they do.

It looks like the cameras have already picked up

a van that's up to no good.

This is the previous day. The waste hasn't been deposited yet.

It's gone dark and at 11:30,

near midnight,

the van pulls in.

It's a bit late for a woodland stroll.

Perhaps they have other motives.

And they start unloading it.

He's just having another quick check there's nobody coming,

and they don't want to get caught.

They know it's illegal.

It seems they've been caught in the act, but what did they dump?

Basically, a lot of kitchen waste dumped on

a really beautiful country lane,

but it was also a location where I knew that we had a camera hidden,

so, while I was there looking at the waste, I...

I examined the images that the hidden camera had recorded.

I've printed these out, but they...

They show two men in a van in the middle of the night

are the people who dumped that.

It's quite odd that they always...

Even though it's 20 to midnight when they did the dumping,

they're very much on the lookout to see if anybody's around -

anybody witnessing them doing the dumping.

It's time to investigate.

Who are these nasty night owls?

-OK.

-David's joined by fellow officer Chris Smith,

another environmental waste officer.

At this time of year, it's very busy.

Everybody's getting out in the garden or getting up in their loft

and sorting things out, and a lot of that waste,

unfortunately, ends up on our streets.

KEYPAD BEEPS

Time to make a few important phone calls.

Will they find the owner of the van?

It sounds like double doors at the back that open out

from the middle outwards.

We have managed to trace the vehicle and we're in contact

with the registered owner of that vehicle.

At last, a result -

the owner's been located by tracing his number plate.

This tipper could be in trouble.

It'd be very unlikely, in my opinion,

to result in just a warning.

It's quite a gratuitous dump of a large amount of waste

in a beauty spot.

It's not my decision to make -

I just think he would be unlikely to receive a warning.

A court could give these cowboys a fine of up to £50,000.

-Have we got everything?

-Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

We've come to Wembley Police Station.

We've made an appointment to interview the van driver -

the owner of the van.

We've gathered the evidence of the waste having been dumped.

We've got the CCTV footage.

We know the vehicle.

And, basically, we have to put it to the owner of the vehicle

that the vehicle was used and ask him for the explanation

of who it was who was driving it.

Time to confront the suspect.

There's no need for us to ambush him in any way.

We just put the evidence to him and he has to tell us what happened.

This is serious.

This interview could provide vital evidence

needed to secure a prosecution.

'The specific incident that we're looking at

'is covered by CCTV images of the deposited waste from a van,

'which we believe to be your van.'

We believe that you were probably driving the van,

but if you're going to tell us it wasn't you, please speak now.

I lend my van to a lot of friends.

I'll be honest with you, like, a lot of...

Yeah, a lot of friends - they ask me to lend my van.

The van owner says he was with his family the night of the crime,

and lent the van to a friend.

These aren't the greatest pictures.

-I can't look at this picture and say, "It's you. It's

-BLEEP."

-I can't do that.

-Hmm.

But it isn't great, from your point of view,

that it's visibly similar to you, to your physical build.

-Hmm, hmm...

-This is a big guy and you're a big guy.

It doesn't help that this is kitchen waste,

because you do kitchen fitting, don't you?

No, I don't do kitchen fitting.

I do kitchen marble, like granite, and I do marble and tiles.

It's nothing to do with the kitchen, as a rule.

-But it... All I'm saying is, it's not great.

-Yeah.

-It doesn't help you that you're involved in kitchen...

-Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, you try to blame me for so much of it,

and I do not know why.

You don't know why? It's your van.

It's my van. I know it's my van.

-And you look like the bloke in the picture.

-I... It's my van.

And I say it like, "This is my van."

I'm not saying it's not my van.

But it wasn't really me...

The van, you know - it wasn't really with me.

-Now, now...

-We just have a duty to ask you.

I know, I know, I know, I know. I mean...

I do understand you have to do your work

-in order to find this fly-tipping.

-Yeah.

Because this horrible thing is...

-It's a mess, isn't it?

-Yes, it's a mess.

The suspect claims he didn't do the dumping.

He is still saying it wasn't him who was driving the van

and dumped the waste.

We will make further enquiries and try and establish whether or not

we can put full credence to the story he has given us,

or whether it's something we should be looking to

challenge and undermine,

and we do have quite a lot of work still to do on it.

Now it's up to the inspectors to dig a bit deeper.

We will fully investigate all of the remaining leads

and find out where they take us,

but, at the end of the day, it may well still fall to him,

the responsibility for the dumping from the van, because it is...

because it is his van.

He may still be held responsible for the dumping that took place.

The case is yet to go to court, but, if found guilty,

this guy could be hit with a fine of up to £50,000,

and a possible 12-month jail sentence.

SIREN WAILS

I'm on speed patrol in Gloucestershire

with PCs Shelley Holloway

and Olly Buxton.

Oscar Tango 5-6.

They're on the lookout for motorists breaking the law,

and, when they're found, they can dish out on the spot fines of £100.

Shelley, can I ask you, have you ever been nicked for speeding?

Yes, I have. About ten years ago,

I don't mind admitting that I got some points for speeding.

Tell me what happened there.

I was on my motorbike, and I'd been riding for about

three or four years,

and I actually got caught by another police officer.

OK, and what... And you did get prosecuted?

Well, I got a fixed penalty notice at the time,

which was three points and a small fine.

Yeah.

And how did you feel about that at the time?

You know, what could I say?

Yes, I was exceeding the speed limit and I shouldn't have been, so, um...

I had it coming to me, really.

'It just goes to show that nobody gets special treatment

'in the eyes of the law.

'Today, we're parked up at an offending hot spot on the M5.

'The traffic cops are on the lookout

'for motorists using their phones behind the wheel.'

We're sitting here under the motorway bridge on the M5, waiting

for you to catch people coming off the slip road and using their phone.

What would you say to people who would say that was sneaky?

I would disagree with them. It's not... It's not sneaky at all.

It's about safety, you know?

I'm in a marked police car and just doing my job.

You know, people shouldn't be on their phones driving,

and I'm sure it would only be the people that are

on their phones driving that would probably say it was sneaky.

Yeah, that's a good point.

'If they catch anyone in the act, they could be looking at

'a fine of £100 and three points on their licence.'

Oh...

I think he just dropped it.

-Which vehicle?

-This one.

Shelley suspects the driver saw the police car and dropped his phone,

so she's pulling him over.

Getting rid of his call history, do you reckon?

How are you doing?

Were you using your phone?

Tucked under your shoulder, under your chin,

as you came down the slip road.

Yeah, I saw it,

and, as you saw me, you dropped your shoulder and it dropped, didn't it?

Yeah, you can't use your phone while you're driving, and that's...

that's specifically why we were at that point.

The gentleman in this car has admitted he was using his phone,

and, as soon as he saw the police officer, he dropped it.

'And there's another problem -

'a quick check on the car has found it doesn't have a valid MOT.'

Subsequent to pulling him over, they discovered that the vehicle's MOT

ran out about three weeks ago, so, obviously, the plot is thickening.

'The guy doesn't seem to know if he's MOT'd or not,

'but he is pleading to Shelley that, if it isn't, he'll get it sorted.'

Honestly, 100%, tomorrow this will have an MOT on it,

if it hasn't got one already, and I'll be furious if it hasn't.

I don't think it has, cos our database is pretty spot-on.

And I get that, so...

So, not only has this guy been using a phone while driving,

but his MOT has recently expired.

Driving without a valid MOT carries a fine of £100,

but how will Shelley choose to deal with it?

-So, I will get it done tomorrow morning.

-OK.

I've nearly finished here.

I just need to tell you that I'm reporting you for using

your mobile phone whilst driving.

You do not have to say anything...

'It's a £100 fine and three points for using his phone,

'but it could have been worse.

'As for driving without a valid MOT, it's a warning.'

The officer - I was sitting in the back of the car -

-was very eagle-eyed.

-Yeah.

She saw your head jerk very, very quickly.

-Yeah.

-I mean, you know, I didn't see it.

-You know, so, I think you were very...

-Yeah.

You were very unlucky to get caught, but, as you say,

-you know what you were doing and...

-Yeah.

You've taken it on the chin, which I admire, you know, but...

-Do you feel hard done by a little bit?

-No, not at all.

At the end of the day, I did what I did and it's against the law.

The thing is...

You know, it's one of those things, isn't it? I got caught.

DOM LAUGHS

SIREN WAILS

'Back on the road, the traffic cops

'have just been informed of a serious incident.'

For us looking for this two-vehicle RTC,

-are there any more further details?

-SIREN WAILS

'A two car head-on collision -

'it's the kind of event that these guys are trying to stop

'by catching and fining careless drivers.'

Thanks. So, we'll just find out if there's anyone seriously injured

or not and we'll clear the road.

'I just hope that this incident hasn't resulted in any casualties.'

Hi. Is anybody badly hurt?

'The cars are badly damaged

'and the female driver is suffering from shock,

'so I'm going to keep out of the way for now.'

If it'll drive, we can just put it in the lay-by down there.

That's not a problem.

Have a think about it while I go and check on the other chap, OK?

'Thankfully, this time, neither of the drivers are seriously injured.'

I think it's a non-injury.

The lady's just very, very shaken up by what's happened to her.

She's not in the wrong and has had a head-on collision

with someone turning right across her path.

So, we're going to give her a few minutes just to calm down

and think about what we need to do with her next, really.

'And with thousands of incidents like this happening every year

'in Gloucestershire alone, it shows how important it is

'to keep your wits about you on the roads.'

This junction, in my experience, is always a bit tricky

because, if you're coming down here, turning right,

you've got very restricted visibility

and the road markings clearly aren't all that.

So, if you're not from the area, it can be...

It can be a bit tricky.

'With the scene secure, we head back on the road,

'and, as night falls, we're nearing the end of the traffic cops' shift.'

So, it's now 9.30 at night.

Tell me what's going to happen next.

We're going to head into Cheltenham.

The night-time economy will be out now

and it should be fairly busy on the roads,

so we'll just see what...

what we pick up on the camera first, on the ANPR,

or what we see with our eyes.

And then, if not, we might consider parking up somewhere

and doing, like, just a watch for any offences that come past.

What sort of offences do you normally come across

at this time of night in a town like that?

Um, I mean, obviously, the night-time will bring out,

potentially, drink-drive offences, that sort of thing.

Um...

-But it could be any number of offences, really.

-OK.

So, it's really just a fishing trip. You know, see what happens and...

In an ideal world, you'd get nothing,

but I bet that doesn't happen very often, does it?

No. Again, you'd be hard pushed to do a shift in Cheltenham

without picking something up.

And, also, you know, in a marked car, we're highly visible.

We're that visible presence, so it might encourage people

to report stuff or stop us and have a chat and tell us about stuff.

'Traffic offenders might think they're safer

'under the cover of darkness,

but it won't stop the cops from trying to catch them.'

It's going to be harder to spot your seatbelt offences in the dark.

'Shelley soon spots a car with some dodgy lights.'

Actually, when it brakes for this corner here,

you'll see it only got the one brake light at the top.

It's a moving traffic offence.

It'll be enough for us to stop and see what else is up with the car.

'Is this driver about to be hit with a £100 fine?'

Because one of your tail-lights doesn't work, as you can see here.

Oh, no, I didn't even know that.

The only brake light that works is this one.

Shall I show you, if I get in your car and you watch from the back?

'So, the driver claims she was unaware about the lights.

'I wonder if Shelley will believe her.'

Can you see your brake lights?

-Yeah. Yeah, I see.

-HIGH-PITCHED BEEP

-So, that's why we stopped you, OK?

-Oh, OK. Thank you.

-So, I'll just check the rest of your vehicle.

-Yeah, yeah.

If it's just that lighting offence,

-then we can choose how we deal with it, if that's all right.

-OK.

-Is it your car?

-'PC Holloway isn't done yet.

'She's giving the car of the once-over.'

The front tyre here is below the legal limit for tread.

Right, OK. Lovely.

'Hang on...'

Parts of it are dead on the limit at 1.6 and parts of it are 1.5.

Right, OK.

So it's not the end of the world on a nice, warm day

like it has been today...

-No, but on wet weather, I understand.

-Yeah.

-I do.

-And that is the only tyre that's below the legal limit.

-Right, OK.

So, what do we do about that, then?

'The driver's smiling, but she might stop

'if she's hit with a £100 fine and points on her licence.'

Did you have any idea that these faults were there with the vehicle?

No, I didn't know that.

I didn't know that cos my first MOT is June.

OK, so, the MOT's about to run out some time, yeah?

In a few weeks, yeah.

If you end up getting a penalty

and/or a fine or points or anything else today, how will you feel?

Gutted cos I've never had points on my licence.

Not only was this driver travelling around with defective brake lights,

her front tyre was on the way out, too.

But how will the cops choose to deal with the offences?

A £100 fine and some penalty points?

Over to Olly for the verdict.

We're going to give you something

called a Vehicle Defect Rectification Scheme ticket.

-Right, OK.

-OK, so it doesn't cost you anything.

All it means you have to do is go and get those things fixed.

'So, no fine or points,

'but the driver has 14 days to get the problems fixed and prove it.

'Lucky girl.'

I live right at the back of a garage, so that's fine.

Fine, so it should be easy.

I'm not going to travel all the way home, am I, now,

-on Sunday with that?

-No. I would suggest common sense.

I wouldn't travel now. Now I now, I would get it done in the morning.

-Get it sorted out. That's right.

-Yeah.

I think, you know, you've got to look at these things, haven't you?

And say, well, OK, you know, if you didn't know those lights were out,

-your safety's at risk anyhow, isn't it?

-Yeah, definitely.

My little girl travels in that car with me, so...

Yeah, you'd want it right, wouldn't you?

Yeah, of course I would. Yeah, definitely.

That's it for today.

Join me next time when I'll be on the front line

with the professionals who are issuing more on-the-spot fines.