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 are 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?

'And some problem parkers play cat and mouse with the traffic wardens.'

You almost ended up with a ticket. Sorry, mate.

THEY LAUGH

Tell you what, that's the most expensive Wham! record

you've ever bought, isn't it?

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.

Got carried away a bit? Yeah.

Did you realise how fast you were going?

I knew that I was over 80-85, but you know,

I'm not concentrating to that degree on what exactly you're going over,

when you're doing that speed as well. He caught you at 98. Yeah.

I'm pretty certain two more miles

and you probably would have lost your licence. Yeah.

A close shave, wasn't it? Yeah.

No, no, bang to rights, you know? That's what I mean.

I'm fortunate, I've learned my lesson

and slow down in the future, basically.

I'm pretty sure he'll be keeping an eye on that needle from now on.

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.

The job of keeping Britain clean and waste free is a biggie,

especially when people don't do their bit to stick to the rules.

The latest figures show that we produce 27 million tonnes

of household waste a year.

That's an awful lot of rubbish

and if you don't do your bit to keep your doorstep clean,

you could end up getting an on-the-spot fine.

My opinion of people who drop litter,

I have no respect for them cos they've got no respect

for other people who are using public footpaths.

I think the impact of litter on the town

is it really brings down the environment,

it brings down how the area looks.

I believe people should be fined for dropping litter. It's an offence.

I think flytipping is disgusting and people are just happy to see

their stuff disappear if they've thrown it out.

Without knowing where it's going.

You know, we all live quite near tips and things,

if there's stuff to get rid of. There's legal ways of doing that.

I get angry with people who just think they've got the right

to just throw anything on the floor to dispose of it,

as opposed to taking it home with them and sticking it in the dustbin.

I think people just aren't brought up to pick up litter any more,

are they? Just a throwaway society. Dump everything.

Smash glasses on the floor.

A lot of councils in a lot of places now,

they provide you with methods to recycle,

so there's no need not to do it.

They should be fined because, if you look around,

there's bins everywhere, there's no need to just throw on the floor.

I don't understand why people do it. But it's just lazy.

To be fair, everyone drops litter, don't they?

It's one of those things.

Sometimes, people put it in the bin, sometimes they don't.

I think the littering should be fineable, yeah,

otherwise the place would basically be a mess.

My dad used to work for an environmental campaigns company,

so I think on-the-spot fines for that sort of thing

is definitely worthwhile.

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.

They say that parking wardens,

or civil enforcement officers as they are now called,

are working in the most hated profession in the country.

But just for a minute, imagine if no-one was policing the parking

and no-one was issuing penalty fines.

It'd be absolute anarchy.

It's a busy day on the streets of North London.

Looking for footway parking, especially here.

This is where I'm looking for, where we get complaints

about people parking on the pavement.

So I'm going to park up here and go and have a look at a vehicle,

like, I've seen a red vehicle there on the footway,

where it's not meant to be.

And motorists caught parking on the pavement in this area

could face an on-the-spot fine of ?110.

Civil enforcement officer Dan has got a keen eye for problem parkers.

If you're illegally parked in Havering,

you'd better watch out for him

because he's a quick draw on the ticket machine.

You are allowed to park on the pavement

where the signs permit you to do so,

like, you've got to be in the bay markings.

This is the one that drew my attention.

Could this be Dan's first fine of the day, or is he feeling generous?

Let's see.

This car is parked on the pavement, which is not only illegal,

but also dangerous for other motorists to pass on the road.

This driver could be looking at a fine.

There's no sign here, saying he can park.

Is Dan writing a ticket?

It's a fine.

Just how many tickets will Dan the parking man issue in one shift?

Dan's given out his fair share of fines,

but this sheriff of the highways wishes they had more impact.

I think the fine is not high enough

because you'll get people who are still repeat offenders.

And he dreads to think what life would be like without him around.

It'd be like chaos, in terms of parking. Like lawlessness basically.

Everyone thinking they can do what they want to do, you know?

And it doesn't take him long to find an example.

As you can see up ahead on the road there,

you have two vehicles parked up there,

making it difficult for vehicles to go past.

But one of the drivers makes a break for it before Dan arrives.

Will the other one get away, too?

It's an instant booking for that.

They'll have to be quick.

The fine for this will probably be ?110, reduced to 55,

if paid within two weeks.

No, the other car isn't so lucky.

It's a fine.

Dan hasn't even got back to his van and he's found another car

illegally parked outside a local garage.

That's got to move right now.

Look...

Will the driver get there in time?

Stopping for this repair could make a big dent in her wallet.

It's a lucky escape without a fine.

It seems to be a day of people taking their chances.

This one's got a ticket, but he's out of time.

I've got a vehicle here that's been on here almost an hour expired.

It's not looking good for this driver.

He's going to have to get his skates on.

He may have paid for a ticket, but it ran out almost an hour ago.

This could warrant an instant fine. Is Dan writing a ticket?

It's almost an hour.

An hour?

15:24.

This driver got away with a warning.

He made it just in time, yes.

But Dan has his limits.

This one is...

..in a loading bay.

And we've got a sign there, telling you the times and all that.

There's no signs of loading or unloading taking place.

It looks like he's going to write it.

Probably in the betting shop, somewhere.

It's a fine.

He'd better hope he wins big time in the bookies to pay it off.

And he's not the only loading bay culprit.

Another vehicle in a loading bay.

But this time, the driver is loading up, with a pie from the chippy.

You've got to go. Yeah. You're going now? Yeah.

And now they're coming in thick and fast.

This vehicle doesn't seem to have one on display.

You need to get a pay and display.

You haven't got any ticket on display.

You almost ended up with a ticket. Sorry, mate.

THEY LAUGH

He was lucky. He didn't end up with a ticket

because he was just, like, ten seconds out.

It's another warning.

Dan's getting ready to clock off, but hang on a minute,

he can't let this one go.

As you can see, there's no-one at the machine.

So he or she's made no effort

to try and purchase a pay and display ticket.

The car is parked up without displaying a ticket.

Could this be an on-the-spot fine?

But there's one glimmer of hope for the motorist.

So I have to, like, give the usual observatory time

and then see what happens after that.

There are five minutes to kill before Dan might issue that ticket.

And it's plenty of time to, you've guessed it, issue another fine.

A vehicle parked on the line.

No disabled badge.

So I've got to issue this one a ticket.

Crossing that line has just cost the driver ?110.

Five minutes are up, Dan's back, but the car has made a getaway.

So the vehicle has left the location. So...

..it's time to head back to the office.

Dan the parking man has had a busy shift. Four fines handed out.

His work here is done.

Just 20 miles away in Barnet,

the residents are in revolt over parking restrictions.

So I'm going on to the parking war front line.

The parking rules are there for a reason

but, for some, the battle lines are drawn.

I'm meeting resident Nick Jones, who runs a local campaign group.

Nick, Dominic. Good to meet you. Hello, Dominic.

This is obviously one of the things you're complaining about, isn't it?

We have been complaining about this for three to four years

and we've got absolutely nowhere with Barnet Council

and what we're doing is our high street is falling apart.

Look behind you, empty shop, empty shop, all over the place.

And it's because this system drives people mad.

Because look, no cash accepted.

So there's no way of anybody paying for a passing visit to Barnet.

Yes, you can't sling a couple of quid in there

and think, "Right, I'm done."

You cannot. Barnet is becoming no-go area.

And the shops are suffering.

And the shops, in the last four years, they've lost 30, 40,

some say 50% of their passing trade.

What our campaign is for,

what other sensitive local authorities have done

is they've introduced a system of a short period of free parking.

In some cases, it's 20 minutes. In some cases, it's half an hour.

In some cases, it's an hour. And what it means, Dom,

is you would arrive here and it would say free period of parking.

You'd press the button. It starts. And you get a little ticket,

which says you can park there for 20 minutes.

I tell you something else which drives me bonkers,

this is me, personally, I can't read that without putting glasses on.

I'm longsighted. And, of course,

the point is we can point you out some of the signs up here.

Look at this one here.

Now, you'd need to be a lot taller than you are to read this.

'How rude!'

Look at all of this.

You've got to absorb all of this.

'Although, actually, I do see what he means.'

It's like a mini Bible.

And we're saying to Barnet Council, "Surely you can put us a sign up

"that tells people in a few sentences what to do?"

'The council says there's little evidence to suggest free parking

'would help the high street thrive.

'But local resident Gail can remember how things were

'before the rules came in to place.'

So you can't park here without paying,

which means obviously if you get caught without a ticket,

or your ticket's expired,

you're going to get an on-the-spot fine, yes? On-the-spot.

Explain to me now what the situation was like

before they brought in these on-the-spot fines

and penalties for people who overstayed their welcome.

Would you come down here and people would park there all day long?

They didn't park all day long. But they parked.

They came and they shopped.

They felt comfortable that they could come along, pull up,

10-15 minutes, an hour, and get their local shopping.

Now, they don't do that.

They know that they can just drive a few miles that way

or a few miles that way and they get it for nothing,

so why would they bother to stop here?

It's killed the market, it's killed everything,

because people won't just come in and pop in and run to the market

for half an hour, or run down the road,

and pick up whatever it is or do whatever they want.

'And, since the parking rules were introduced,

'one local shopkeeper is feeling the effect.'

How much would you say your business is down

as a result of the parking now?

Circa 40%?

There's pockets of shops that don't get the people turning up

because they risk getting a fine.

And it is just small purchases.

But small purchases are extremely important to a community like this.

Have you yourself seen any benefit

since they've imposed these parking restrictions now?

None. So it's 100% negative for you? Yeah.

Are your customers complaining to you directly about it? Regularly.

They come in all the time and just...

As you see here, there's not a lot of footfall,

so we rely on people coming in cars and saying,

"Ah, there's a record shop or a mirror shop, I want to go there."

If it continues like this, 40% down on your business, your trade,

is massive numbers, do you think you'll be able to survive the storm?

No.

'He sounded pretty sure about that. Sad times indeed.

'I understand the residents' frustrations,

'but I also know that without rules it would be absolute parking chaos.'

I love shops like that. I've even bought two records.

Iron Maiden - Number of the Beast,

and Squeeze - Cool For Cats. Odd combination, but ooh!

I'm happy, but not everyone's been quite so lucky.

You've just walked back to this, haven't you?

I've just walked back, yep. What do you think of that?

Gutted, to be honest with you. It's happened quite a few times to me.

I literally went into the shop and I was literally ten minutes.

Yep. And I've come back to that.

What made you think you could park there for ten minutes

without a ticket? I thought I had about ten minutes.

I looked at the sign up there and I saw it was 15 minutes.

I thought I had 15 minutes' grace to fly into the shop,

the charity shop, and I've just come out and I've got the ticket.

Right. Of course, that does say you can park for 15 minutes,

but only between ten and four and you've obviously overstepped that.

It's just gone four, hasn't it? Yeah.

I've literally only just had it.

They've put it on there, the ticket.

So it was after four o'clock. How are you feeling about it right now?

Used to it, to be honest with you. There's not much you can do.

Do you know how much it is? Probably about 50 or 60 quid. Do you mind?

Go on. Go on, have a look.

He's literally just bought that. Here, I'll hold it for you.

I'll tell you what, that's the most expensive Wham! record

you've ever bought, isn't it?

110 quid. Oh, at 55 quid if I pay it... Yeah, early. Yeah.

55 quid. Ouch.

How much did you pay for that? ?1.

Oh, well. Did you get a receipt?

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 had another quick check that 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...

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.

Is it him? Yeah.

She's happy and she's settled.

Don't screw things up for her.

GUNSHOTS Elvis!

I just wish that I could stop loving you.