Episode 2 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 up to 104 now.

-Wow!

-That is disgusting.

Just walk away.

..for behaviour that's downright dangerous.

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

'Simply selfish...'

-Look at the mess you've created in the street.

-How is that our fault?

'..or just, well...'

What is he doing?

'..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.'

-Might give them a punch.

-You want to see me kick off?

'The police are on it...'

What the...!

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

They should be thanking us for being here.

'..and I'm on it.'

There's a 30 mile an hour limit here.

'I'm Dom Littlewood

'and I'm on the spot.'

'Today, there's a meaty fine at stake

'for these pizza-loving students.'

Why are your bins full?

Sorry? Because we've a lot of people in the house,

which create a lot of waste.

Yeah, and you've got enough bins for 14 people.

'..and will this unhappy driver manage to fight his parking fine?'

£80 for something which I didn't even know nothing about?

The law's not on your side essentially.

No, it isn't, is it?

'Today, we're kicking off with being on the spot in Wiltshire.

'I'm riding shotgun with a busy traffic cop

'and I love a bit of blues and twos. I think.'

Got to have a strong stomach being thrown around in a car like this,

-haven't you?

-You're not being thrown around, this is a lovely smooth,

-progressive drive.

-For you, maybe.

'Mr Cool here is Wiltshire Police's Jay Clifton.'

Can you tell me what the speed limit for the motorway is?

70.

Jay has the power to issue on-the-spot fines of £100

to anyone caught speeding on his patch.

M4 heading eastbound towards London, pretty rural area apart from,

of course, this being a very busy motorway.

What's this like for people using and abusing privileges on the road?

It's the same as any motorway.

We get speeders and we get a lot going on

such as this one going past us now.

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

Why are we suddenly accelerating?

Just accelerating, as I've been chatting to you,

I've just seen a vehicle coming up behind us who's certainly travelling

in excess of the 70-mile-an-hour speed limit.

You're doing 90 to keep up with him.

I'm up to 104 now.

Wow.

'This is more like it.

'But at the rate that driver's going,

'I'm wondering if there's going to be at least a £100 on-the-spot fine

'for speeding on the cards.'

I'm going to keep a distance between myself and the vehicle ahead of us.

'With the vehicle in his sights,

'Jay now needs to start recording the evidence.'

I've got a calibrated speedo on my vehicle.

That's a steady 100 miles an hour as well.

So I'm going to quickly turn my camera on.

Right, because you've now videoed him doing

in excess of 100 miles an hour, is that going to be a ban?

I could deal with it by way of a fixed-penalty notice...

..or I could report him to go to court.

His speed averaged between 96 and 100.

It was only at a very brief distance that it went over it.

'So this driver is driving fast enough

'to get a £100 on-the-spot fine

'or he could go to court and end up with a ban.

'Which will Jay choose?'

SIREN WAILS 'Well, we need to catch him first.'

What I'm going to do is just come alongside him now.

You follow me.

The reality has just hit them.

How common an occurrence is that?

Speeding on a motorway?

Very common.

'The blue light's on.

'And I'm thinking is this going to end

'in a fine for the speeding driver?'

-Hello, sir, how are you?

-Not too bad.

The reason I'm still you is your speed.

'The driver immediately admits to doing 80-90

'and Jay is not impressed.'

I have to point out that it's an offence to drive at excess speed

and in relation to that you don't have to say anything

but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned

something which you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

You're not under arrest, but I want to have a chat.

Do you have your driver's licence with you at all, sir?

'Jay has read him his rights as a matter of procedure,

'but does this mean a court summons or an on-the-spot fine?

'And I've noticed something else.'

What's a bit disappointing - the car's next to me, the...

I can see right now, his wife's sitting in the front,

he's got two babies in child seats behind him,

probably somewhere in the region, I would say,

of two and three years old.

We've all sped, none of us are angels,

but when you've got young kids that age, I just think, er...

Well, personally, I think you need to be a bit more sensible.

Is there any lawful reason you can give me

as to why you're travelling at that speed?

'The guy still claims he was only doing around 80

'but Jay is still unconvinced.

'Anyone else think this could end in a ticket?'

Your speed averages between, I would suggest, 95-100.

You know, as well as I do, anything over 100 miles an hour,

you go to court and you're likely to get a disqualification.

'It's not looking good for this driver.

'It could be much worse than an on-the-spot fine.'

However, because I had to catch up with you initially

before keeping an equal distance between yourself and myself, I

would suggest, that perhaps,

that 104 may have been my acceleration to catch you up.

So, let's take a look at Jay's options.

The driver has been clocked speeding with his young family in the car.

Will it be a court summons

if Jay is certain he was consistently over 100 miles an hour?

Will it be a fixed penalty on-the-spot fine?

Or maybe just a firm warning?

At least, that's what the driver wants.

I can, you're right, I can.

But, for you, I'm not going to.

Your speed is well in excess of the 70-mile-an-hour speed limit.

In view of that, the way I propose to deal with that today

is by way of a fixed-penalty notice, which is going to be three points

on your licence and a £100 fine payable within 28 days.

There it is. The driver has escaped a ban, just.

But he still got three points on his licence

and a £100 fixed-penalty notice.

Initially, he thought that the speed limit for the motorway was 80-90,

although he's held his licence in the UK for ten years.

He couldn't answer the speed limit for the motorway.

The sort of speeds he was travelling at,

how dangerous would you consider those to be?

The vehicle is travelling close to 100 miles an hour,

96-100 miles an hour - at that kind of speed,

if another vehicle was to break down ahead of him

or he had to take evasive action, someone's going to die.

It's extremely dangerous.

What got me about that is those kids in the back were very, very young.

They weren't even old enough to tell Dad, "Slow down."

And I would find that very hard to believe that if you had kids

of that age, you would even want to drive that speed, it just seems mad.

To you and I it seems mad, but people...

-Everyone's different.

-Yeah. Nuttier than a squirrel's

-BLEEP,

-that's what I say.

-Yeah, let's get another one.

-Right.

'We'll be back with Jay a bit later on

'to witness some more dangerous driving.'

In Cardiff, the council are really getting tough on grime.

The Welsh capital is booming

with the fastest growing population in Wales, but with more people

comes more rubbish and more rubbish means more opportunities to mess up.

Residents who break the city's new household waste disposal rules

could face a £100 on-the-spot fine,

courtesy of Waste Enforcement Officer Steph,

who, it seems, can sniff out literally anything.

Yeah, there's a really strange smell here.

It must have been your hi-vis - it smells like feet.

-He's got new boots, new fleece.

-The hardest worker here.

Steph is joined on the beat today by fellow Enforcement Officer Jon.

He's the one with the smelly hi-vis.

Let's go. See you later.

You know that saying, "It's a dirty job but someone's got to do it?"

Well, in this job it's actually true.

Tell us that cat story, Steph.

-There was a cat.

-It must have been there... What was it, in a bag?

It was in a cardboard box and Kieran, who I was working with,

thought it was driftwood because it was that colour.

-It had been there for so long.

-And he picked it up like that

and he was like, "That would look nice in my fish tank,"

and I went, "It's a cat," and he went, "What?" I said, "It's a cat,"

and he turned it round and it was like that.

To meet tough new recycling targets,

the council have introduced new slimline black waste bins,

encouraging people to recycle more of their waste in green plastic bags

rather than just putting it in the general waste bins.

Today, Steph's finely-tuned sense of smell and eagle eyes

have tracked down some badly behaving waste

belonging to some of the city's 30,000 students.

A lot of the students, they put extra waste out.

They put their bin out

and that's the only thing the bin men will collect

and they put extra waste out

not realising if they recycle properly or use the food waste bin,

that they'd have more room in their black bin

and their waste would be collected.

Steph is clearly on a mission to find these student offenders

so, if she does, what can they expect?

Pay attention at the back.

It could be either a caution,

a £100 fine or £1,000 fine for a repeat offender. Ouch.

Because these are near the lane,

I'm just going to give these a little kick.

Because you never know if there could be mice.

I have been known to run away from leaves thinking they are mice.

So, if you're not careful with that wrapper, boys,

that could be a very expensive burger.

Steph and John know exactly where they're heading today.

They're off to visit a property that they've already had problems with.

The first signs that waste is about are here. The scavengers.

The seagulls are here. They love it.

Basically, you've got nine boys living in a property there.

I've had a problem with them a couple of weeks ago.

their front garden was full of waste.

It was split, as well. I've also had reports from their neighbours that

they are dumping waste in their bins.

This is a shocking mess but let's see if it's a fineable offence.

Here goes. First step, finding the guilty party.

Hi, Cardiff Council waste enforcement.

Is this a flat or one house?

-One house.

-OK, how many live in the house?

-Nine of us.

-There's nine of you. OK.

It's just about a bag that you've put out.

Next step, examine the evidence.

I just want you to come out and have a look.

Obviously yourself or one of your housemates has put it out.

This is the mess it's created.

Steph starts off with a softly, softly approach.

This is a house with nine people.

You've got enough bins there for 15 people. You're not recycling.

Food waste goes in your food waste bin and the recyclable materials,

all right, go in the recycling bags and they go out every week.

Unlike the residents.

-Every week?

-Recycling the food waste is weekly.

And then your general waste bin is...

I've had our bins here not collected for weeks before.

-No, I'm sorry. I'm here every week.

-I'm not lying.

Perhaps they don't realise there's a £100 fine rising to £1,000

if they don't pay it.

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

How is that our fault?

Because you put a black bag out, all right?

If you put it in the correct receptacles,

it would be collected by the binmen. You didn't.

Where would we have put the black bins, black bags

if we didn't have a bin to put it in?

Temperatures and tempers are hotting up.

There's going to be a fine.

This is a ten-man house.

Yeah, and you've got enough bins for 14 people.

-We've got two bins.

-Yes, that's for eight people.

I've got four at home between four people. A bin each at home.

You just don't get it. If you put all your recycling in the bags,

you'd have more room in your bins. It's as simple as that.

Is anyone wondering what degree they're studying? It could be law.

Where are we going to put them? In the kitchen?

-It's a health hazard, isn't it?

-Why are your bins full?

Or drama?

That's not a point, mate.

When the bins are full, we put the plastic bags out!

Or maybe languages?

-But to be honest...

-BLEEP!

What other chance have I got? You...

BLEEP!

Every single house has got rubbish on the front.

There's obviously a problem, isn't there?

I'd stay out of it, mate, if I were you.

There could be a £100 fine on the cards here.

THEY ARGUE

I'm trying to tell you if you put the recycling in the recycling bags,

you'd have load more room in your bins.

But you don't want to listen to that.

You're just being rude and swearing at me.

That could be the final nail in the coffin.

It's the moment of truth.

She's gone to the lorry and that's where she keeps her big penalty pad.

Their bins are plenty big enough for them.

If they recycled and used the food waste bin which goes out weekly,

they'd have plenty more room in their bins.

Even though they've got enough bins there for 14 people,

there is only nine of them. They are not recycling,

they're not using their food waste, they really don't care.

So, let's look at the facts.

Clear evidence of overflowing split bins.

No sign of recycling.

Everything chucked in the general waste bin.

Food waste bins unloved, unused and empty.

Oh, and let's not forget the attitude.

So, to fine or not to fine? That is the question.

There it is. The pad.

Is it a £100 fine?

Or maybe not.

I'm going to put them on a section 46 notice.

Hopefully this is their last year and they won't be back next year.

This time, it's a written caution and not a £100 fine.

Better be on your best behaviour now, lads.

They'll get away with that mess today

but if they put waste out incorrectly,

they'll have a £100 fixed penalty from next week onwards.

Nothing quite ruins your day like receiving a parking ticket.

But if, like me, you've been given a ticket you think is unfair,

you can appeal.

Yeah, really!

Today, I've come to the Environment And Traffic Adjudicators Tribunal

in London to meet Ernest.

He's disputing an £80 parking fine

which he believes wasn't served correctly.

But will his fine be upheld by head adjudicator Caroline?

So, you're not actually disputing the fact you've got the penalty,

you're just saying you didn't receive the letter giving you

-a chance to pay the reduced rate?

-That's correct.

-OK.

-So, there's £40 riding on it, hopefully.

-Yes.

-OK, good luck.

-Thank you.

-All right.

Up to an incredible 50% of the cases that gets heard here are successful

so the odds are good but will Ernest be one of them?

The London Borough Of Camden are alleging that,

on the 21st March of this year,

you parked and they say without a payment of a parking charge.

-Do you accept that that's what happened?

-No.

-Right. So you never knew anything about it.

-No.

-You got what's called a Notice To Owner through the post.

-Yes.

-And are you saying you paid the penalty at that point?

-Well, no.

I believed, because I've had several tickets,

this is not the first time this has happened to me.

-What is it you believed?

-That I paid on that time.

-That you'd paid to park?

-Yes. Yeah.

Listen to my question before answering.

'I don't know about you but I'm scared.'

Are you saying you paid to park

or that you paid for the penalty charge?

I paid the penalty-charge notice.

But you're also saying that you never got it on your car.

Well, this I haven't got.

But if you didn't get it on your car, how can you have paid it?

No. I've always had tickets on my car.

I didn't know anything about it.

This one I believed was one I'd received prior to this.

Ernest is pretty adamant he's in the right, but is he?

Is he going to escape his on-the-spot fine?

Right, listen to what...

Let's just try and follow this slowly.

You've said that you never got a notice,

"I never received a notice except this one and I have paid."

"Or I do receive, I have paid by the internet, so sort it out."

So, you're saying I have only had one ticket and I paid it.

I've had two tickets there.

'Two tickets? I'm completely lost now.'

Right.

-I've tickets there.

-You said, "I've never received

"a notice except this one."

-Hey?

-That's your writing.

Yes, I had a notice telling me that I never paid.

I know in your mind you think you didn't receive anything

but I'm saying to you that you must have because here it is.

This is something that you received.

I didn't receive any note telling me to pay.

-Right.

-That's why...

-DOM MOUTHS

-When you received this...

-When I received it, I immediately wrote.

'Come on, Ernest, that document has got your signature on it.

'You can't get much better evidence than that.

'Ah. Hold on a minute.'

-Is that your car?

-Yes.

We can see there that that's a ticket. All right.

So I think that I can safely make a finding

-that the ticket was served to your vehicle.

-That is not disputed.

I never, I came out, I didn't see a parking ticket on the car.

-The only time I got this letter...

-I'm trying to explain to you, sir,

the problem you've got is,

by not receiving the parking ticket on the car,

you were unable to take advantage of the 14-day discount period.

-That is correct.

-Right, so,

what happened was, the council extended the offer to you

to put you back in that position.

Again, you didn't take advantage of that offer

-because you never read the letter. Yes?

-That's correct.

We're at that point.

Now you're here, I haven't got that power.

£80 for something which I didn't even know nothing about?

Right. We've looked at the evidence, the ticket was on the car.

Of course the ticket's on the car

but I never received the letter telling me.

-I didn't know about the ticket.

-I understand that.

Right, I think I've got a handle on the evidence.

But, in case you haven't, Ernest claims he didn't receive

the first ticket, and then didn't read the second ticket

which means he wasn't able to make use of the 14-day discount.

'So, is Ernest going to get away with it?

'Or has he got to pay that full £80 fine?'

To cut a long story short, sir, your penalty amount is £80

and I'm not going to be able to allow your appeal.

You haven't got a ground of appeal. I'll put it in writing for you

and you have a further 28 days to pay the penalty at the rate of £80.

So, that's the £80 fine upheld.

The law's not on your side, essentially.

No, it isn't, is it?

-If you want to wait for your decision letter.

-No, it isn't.

Don't I know it. Don't I know!

'I do feel a bit sorry for Ernest.

'One small mistake and he's got to cough up £80.

'If only he'd responded to that first offer.'

Now, Ernest, I've got to be honest, when you left the court room there,

I heard you swear a couple of times. You weren't very happy, were you?

-Absolutely not.

-Why not?

She never went in my favour at all.

Now, £80 is a lot of money for anybody.

-Obviously, it's going to hurt you a little bit, is it?

-Yes, yes.

Can I ask you a question and can you be totally truthful with me, right?

The adjudication's all finished now,

-it makes no difference your answer at all.

-Yes.

We all saw that photo with the ticket on your windscreen.

Be honest, were you just trying your luck to get it down to 40 quid?

To be honest, Dom, if I didn't read the letter which they sent me

thoroughly, I would have realised that they still gave me...

-Another 14 days.

-But I did not.

When I saw the letter, I read the first section

-and just put it on the side.

-OK.

-I just put it on the side.

That's half the problem, though.

-You got a second chance to pay the 40 quid.

-Yes.

Right, Ernest.

-You didn't read the second letter?

-No, I didn't.

Because if I did, I would've immediately paid it

rather than me having to go through this pain.

If you get another one of these in future,

what are you going to do different?

-You're going to pay it earlier?

-As early as possible!

All right, good on you, Ernest. Lovely chatting to you.

I've seen you before somewhere else along the line.

Yeah. Probably Crimewatch, was it? ERNEST LAUGHS

Or was it Baywatch!

'Next, I'm back in Wiltshire on a ten-hour shift

'with traffic cop Jay Clifton.

'He's already handed out a £100 on-the-spot fine

'to a speeding driver.'

I have to point out it is an offence to drive at excess speed.

In relation to that, you don't have to say anything

but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned

something which you later rely on in court.

'I'm starting to realise that, when you're out on patrol,

'you never know where the next fine is coming from.'

Just had a report of a possible collision

-that's come in further ahead of us.

-INDISTINCT RADIO INSTRUCTIONS

Just going over that way. There's five vehicles colliding.

A collision?

Sounds like someone could be on the end of a ticket here.

Perhaps dangerous driving? I just hope no-one's hurt.

Could just be rear-end shunt but you always think the worst.

-Is this traffic here as a result of that accident?

-Yeah.

'A fine for dangerous driving could be anything up to £5,000.

-Give me two seconds.

-OK.

I'll see what we've got.

At the moment, these five-car shunts are actually bigger than cars.

You've got a van that's gone into the back of a motorhome

that's gone into the back of an estate car

that's gone into the back of an MPV.

The only good thing I can say is, everybody's out of the vehicles.

There doesn't seem to be any blood or guts which I'm pleased about.

I haven't got a strong stomach for that.

OK. We are not needed.

'The emergency services have got it under control

'which is a relief for me.

'So, there's no fine here, not for Jay to issue, anyway.

'But, hold on a moment.

'As we're leaving the scene, Jay spots an illegal manoeuvre

'and, I'm no traffic cop....'

Not exactly a very sensible way to do it, is it?

It's not and I'm waiting to see what he's going to do.

'And I'm wondering if this could be another on-the-spot fine.'

What is he doing?

CAR HORN TOOTS

SIREN WAILS

CAR HORN TOOTS

'By the look on Jay's face,

'that lorry driver is going to need a pretty good excuse for that move.'

That's just plain stupid, isn't it?

That is absolutely ridiculous

because he's just effectively done a U-turn

in the middle of a crossroads which is synonymous with collisions there

whilst all the traffic lights are changing from red to green.

It was worse than a U-turn, it was 270 degrees.

He went round three-quarters, in an articulated lorry on a junction.

All it takes is for another car to come the other way,

see a green light and he's in the middle of the road. Not acceptable.

Was a bit of a doughnut.

'The driver has performed a dangerous and illegal manoeuvre

'but he's done it right in front of a traffic officer.

'Will Jay be getting his notebook out?'

Is this a possible fineable offence?

Yep.

Careless driving is something we can deal with

by way of a fixed-penalty notice now

which is a £100 fine and three points on the licence.

So, a lot of what happens now will depend on his attitude?

If he can give me a reasonable reason

as to why he's made that manoeuvre, then we can discuss it.

But, at the moment, I am considering giving him a fixed-penalty notice.

'A fixed penalty in this case would be £100,

'so let's see how this goes.'

Thank you.

'I don't know about you but I've got a feeling this driver

'could be on the receiving end of an on-the-spot fine.

'But first, Jay must assess the situation.'

Do you feel it was safe for you to do a big turn

whilst all those cars are moving in middle of the traffic lights?

Yeah, it was the other lorry behind me

and driver shout at me, "Go, go, go," or "Start".

So I decided to turn around to go this way.

-Do you feel that was safe to do so with all those cars?

-Yeah.

-You honestly think that was safe?

-I think yes.

'Now I've not been in a car with Jay long, but I'm pretty sure

'that might have been the wrong answer to avoid a fine.'

In my opinion, I don't.

'Yep, thought so.'

In the middle of those traffic lights,

you've gone all the way round and back down again.

You could have pulled forward to wait to see what was happening

because you didn't know there was a collision there.

Other car driver shout at me, "Stop, don't go there."

It's a tough job making decisions.

I was watching that and I was thinking, what would I do?

And, the right side of me, if I was upholding the law would say,

"Yes, it was stupid."

"He shouldn't be doing it, especially in that vehicle.

"He deserves the points."

There was an element of me going, "You know what?

"Give the guy a break. Let him off. He's learned his lesson."

But would the roads be any safer if that happens?

Probably not. I don't know.

'I'm still not sure whether this guy is going to get a fine.

'He's pretty sure he's in the clear.

'So, how about we take a look at his little spin one more time?'

There he goes. 90 degrees across the traffic.

180 degrees.

..then back across the lane he started in.

So has the driver done enough to persuade Jay to just give him

a telling off or is it going to be an on-the-spot fine?

Over to you, Jay.

The way we deal with these things in careless driving is a £100 fine

and three points on your licence.

And it's a fine.

Jay was never going to let that one go, was he?

-Is this the first time you've had points on your licence?

-Yeah,

first ticket and first point.

Will that affect your job

or are you allowed to get away with a couple of points?

Erm, if I have three or six points,

I don't know how they may look at it

but if I exceed three or six points, I can't work more.

What's your opinion of the police officer

who's now decided to give you some points there?

I think he's right. It's his job.

-Yeah.

-Er, driving is my job and sometimes, er...

we do something wrong

and I think next time, I will be more careful.

A person who's in charge of a very large and very heavy vehicle

who should be considered a professional driver himself,

he's taken extra driving lessons to be able to drive a vehicle

of that size and therefore has a massive responsibility.

By the manoeuvre he's made, he's put a lot of people at risk.

Not just members of the public but emergency service personnel

-attending a collision, wasn't good.

-Yeah.

So, his 270-degree spin in an articulated lorry has cost him

a £100 fine and three points on his licence.

If there's one thing I've learned today

working with the civil enforcement officers, it's that they have

a very, very tough job and as they say, "Someone's got to do it."

Join us next time for more Dom On The Spot.