Episode 4 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 up to 104 now.

-Wow!

That is disgusting.

Just walk away.

HE GROWLS

..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, 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.

-I'll give him a punch.

-Do 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, there's conflict on the streets.

-Wipe that

-BLEEP

-smile off your face.

I'm going to smile as long as I want to.

I'm not going to need your permission or anyone else's.

I'm on the spot with the traffic cops...

They've asked us to attend to assist them.

..attending crash scenes...

That looks messy.

..and dishing out fines.

-I've got a ticket.

-Ouch!

-BLEEP

-off, really.

-Yeah.

-Gutted.

Parking.

I mean, we all know what a nightmare it can be

and we're all constantly aware of the fact

that if we don't quite park legally,

we could end up with a very hefty penalty-charge notice.

But let me tell you something.

In 1950, there was about four million cars on the road.

Nowadays, there's nearly 37 million.

That is an awful lot more cars.

Being a traffic warden can be tough but with more and more cars

on our roads each year, it's a job that certainly needs doing.

They do a good job and it's a hard job but I just think sometimes

people are gunning for the traffic warden

and you just need to step back a bit.

Do you like CEOs? Traffic wardens?

No, because sometimes I think that they are just out there

just to get the tickets and to get their commission and their money,

so, no, I don't.

Does anybody like them?

Well, it's a good point.

OK. What would you do if we didn't have traffic wardens?

Yeah, we need them.

It is a difficult job.

I can imagine the public can be very tiresome sometimes

and very problematic.

Do you think, though, to a certain extent,

we do need to be having tickets issued and parking...?

Can you imagine what it would be like if they weren't there?

Oh, it would be ridiculous, yeah. Yeah, it would be.

In Havering, parking enforcement officer Kam is on patrol.

I'm here until 10:30 today. Woohoo!

Life doesn't get any better than that!

So far it's a quiet day, but things can change quickly

when you're a parking enforcement officer.

Kam has spotted three vehicles possibly parked illegally

outside a property.

Although this is a driveway, it's a yellow line.

It looks like they've got the builders in.

And that's until 6:30, as well.

So where it's just a dropped kerb,

we would need permission from the resident.

But if it has a yellow line going through it,

we don't need permission from the resident.

During those times, no-one is allowed to park there.

If they overstay their 20-minute waiting time,

they can be hit with a £40 on-the-spot fine each.

But luckily, it looks like someone is on the premises to move them.

-This you, boss?

-I've just pulled up, just taking in some bolts.

-That's fine. Are you moving?

-Huh?

-Are you moving?

-Am I moving? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

These vehicles are parked on a time-limited single yellow line.

It doesn't matter if the vehicles are connected to the property

they're in front of, they still need to move.

But things are moving slowly and Kam is beginning to lose patience.

Right, if this van is nothing to do with her, which it obviously is,

-because it's her builders...

-I'm a builder.

Right, then there's nothing stopping you moving the van

-and having her park in her drive...

-Yeah, it's fine.

..rather than having a go at me, cos I've just turned up

and found three vehicles on the yellow line that shouldn't be there.

-OK, no problem.

-Yeah? Right, thank you.

-Have a nice day.

-You too.

-Do you want to move, sir?

-I'm moving.

He'll now go and park everywhere else because I'm here.

Things can get heated very quickly,

especially when a fine is on the cards.

MAN SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY

They've moved, yeah. You've got 20 minutes to load, sir.

I'll do it in two minutes.

-That's fine.

-Don't be stroppy.

-I'm not being stroppy.

I'm telling you how long you have.

-What you giving all that for?

-Right, I'm telling you how long you have.

Right, we've got 20 minutes. You've done what you've had to say,

-now

-BLEEP.

It's a tough job and this one has got to her.

Disappear.

You told us 20 minutes and you're still smirking.

-Just walk away, walk way.

-Yeah, because I'm supposed to ask people

when I smile. I'm supposed to ask people when I talk.

Do they not realise that we have freedom as well?

If I want to smile, I'll smile.

No fines here but not a great start to the day.

Let's hope things get better in town.

Oh, you're such a cutie-pie. Look at him!

Tut-tut-tut-tut.

We get a lot more friendly contact with animals in this job

than we do with people.

Hang on a minute, I don't believe it. It's the man from earlier.

Still causing trouble again.

-No, we're doing our job.

-BLEEP

-Yeah.

-Put that on your Dick And Dom.

I really hope he's back within ten minutes,

cos I will give him a ticket.

Fight aside, this has now turned nasty.

SHE LAUGHS

Oh, God.

But at least this time it looks like he's buying a ticket.

Oh, now he's getting a ticket, straight after I've observed him.

No worries.

Yeah, cos he knows I'm watching his vehicle.

I hope he takes longer than he's taken money for.

-Wipe that smile off your face.

-I'm going to smile as long as I want to.

I'm not going to need your permission or anyone else's.

Yeah, we've got a picture of his vehicle anyway,

so it won't take them long to get hold of him.

He shouldn't be winding me up smiling when...

He's not winding you up, he's just standing there.

-Don't keep smirking.

-You're getting wound up yourself, mate.

5-3-5 to control. Are you receiving?

Yeah, control, one of the film crew has been threatened by a driver.

Can we have a police car at Market Place, please?

Market Place car park, outside the Lidl.

You might as well wait now, the police is on its way.

-BLEEP

-They can come and find me, can't they?

Yeah, well, I've got your registration,

so they'll come knocking at your door, yeah?

-What are you going to do me for?

-Are you serious?

-Put that on the telly.

-He's bought a ticket and now he's drove off...

because he knows he's in the wrong.

Who buys an hour's ticket and then drives off?

Well, that was a tense situation.

It just shows how a regular shift can turn nasty very quickly.

Like you just saw,

it doesn't have to be you having a go at them.

He's come from a totally different location

but the incident we've already had with him is still in his head

and he's come back and reacted in a similar fashion.

Boss, you need to get a ticket.

Ticket. Yeah?

Erm...so, yeah, you can imagine,

every time we see him in the borough now,

we're going to have conflict with him,

cos that is how he's going to behave, no matter what.

Personally, we try and avoid things like that,

especially with residents, businesses...

..people who we're going to bump into on a regular basis.

Cos if you're going to see someone every day, come on, let's face it,

we'd much rather be on a good term with them.

You know?

And we do try. We're still trying.

Well, I hope these types of shifts are few and far between

but at least Kam is able to put it behind her.

Next, I'm on the beat in Wiltshire with traffic cop Jay Clifton.

On an average shift, Jay can expect to hand out on-the-spot fines

for anything from speeding to hogging the middle lane.

But before he can get anywhere close to pulling out his penalty pad,

something much more serious comes through on the radio.

At the moment, there has been what's called a road traffic collision -

they're not accidents any more, they're RTCs -

and Jay is basically waiting to find out whether he's needed or not.

So he's just staying local to this area,

waiting to hear whether they suddenly say, "OK, get over there."

So in the meantime, he's just keeping mobile

but he's tending to stay in one particular area.

So, really, we don't know what's going to happen

in the next five, ten minutes.

It could be blues and twos all the way there quickly

or just cruising round the town.

I can tell you, though, it's roasting hot.

He's got stab vests on and all these high-vis jackets.

I mean, it's a really uncomfortable position to be in.

-Let's go, guys.

-OK. What's happening?

The update is that this is potentially a serious collision now.

They've asked us to attend to assist them

so we're going to go take a look at what we've got from

the perspective of roads policing,

see if we can help them out.

Right.

Cor! That looks messy.

I really hope everyone's OK.

RTCs like this one are far too common and often linked

with unsafe driving.

In this case, the passenger has been thrown from the car because

she wasn't wearing her seatbelt.

Whilst the paramedics attend to her,

Jay interviews the driver in the ambulance.

Have you ever done a breath test before?

On the end of the tube, one nice, long breath outwards

until I tell you to stop. Off you go.

Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Good. Nice one.

You've blown zero. I'm happy with that.

'I've breathalysed the driver.'

That's come back as a zero. I'm more than happy with that.

There is an intimation that the driver's had

a medical episode prior to the collision and the collision

is as a result of the passenger

trying to stop the car from having a collision.

And to do that,

she had to undo her seatbelt in an attempt to reach the controls.

So, in this case, no caution required.

The passenger is going to be taken away to a local hospital.

-We've got a few queries about a back injury.

-She's conscious, is she?

-Conscious and breathing.

-OK.

-Not life-threatening, not life-changing.

-This is all precautionary.

-Yeah.

Doing everything we can to make sure she's comfortable and safe

-and then she'll be taken away.

-OK.

So basically there's nothing more to say about this, is there, really?

She's off and you won't know till later on.

No, I'll make a few phone calls later on to make sure

everything's OK and go on from there but, as it is,

this is just what being police work is about.

We could be looking for one thing and, next thing we know,

we're dealing with something which could potentially

change someone's life.

-It's an unfortunate accident.

-It's an unfortunate accident.

So thankfully we'll get everything sorted out.

The road's going to be closed for some time.

It does annoy members of the public that we do that but we do it

for safety, not only ourselves but everyone we're working with.

I noticed that. I was sitting there,

just waiting to see what happened, and there was a couple of drivers

turned up there, they're going...

I'm thinking, "Come on, mate, you can see the Fire Brigade there, you've got

"police cars, there's a car on its head and those people working round.

"What are you screaming and shouting about?"

-Because we're blocking their way home, they want to get home.

-Yeah.

Unfortunately, that's the way it is.

We just switch off to it and carry on with what we've got.

-That is our priority right now.

-Yeah, OK. All right.

-Shall we crack on and do something else?

-Let's do it. Yeah.

Obviously that lady had a very good reason why she wasn't wearing

her seatbelt but under normal circumstances not wearing one

is a fineable offence.

We've only just left the scene of the accident when we come

across someone who doesn't look like he's using his.

Passenger doesn't appear to be wearing his seatbelt at the moment.

-That's the first observation I've got.

-OK.

So what I'm going to do, I am going to cause the vehicle to stop but

while I'm doing it I'm going to be constantly watching the passenger.

Driver's wearing his but that passenger seatbelt doesn't

appear to be being worn at the moment.

'I sense the first on-the-spot fine of the day.'

I can actually see the seatbelt hanging down

so that's definitely not being worn.

So we'll have a chat and, unless this driver's got some sort of

medical exemption...

At this point, I suppose, obviously people start to put their

seatbelts on normally, do they?

Yeah, which is why I'm just having a quick look,

keeping an eye on it, looking at what he's doing.

I'll tell you what, his instincts were right, because you can

very clearly see now the guy hasn't got his seatbelt on.

-Hello, sir.

-How are you doing?

-Actually, you're the reason why I've stopped.

-Oh, right?

You do know it's an offence to be a passenger in

a motor vehicle whilst not wearing a seatbelt?

Mind yourself as you get out.

-It won't do up anyway.

-Won't do up? OK.

His excuse is that in this car

the seatbelt is simply not big enough to go round him.

I've got a... When I drive the lorry, I've got the...

-An extension.

-Yeah.

-OK, so if you're in another vehicle,

you should be carrying that extension with you.

I just got picked up to go

-drop the lorry off and left it in the lorry.

-OK.

I don't want you to be involved in a collision,

which may not be your driver's fault,

it may not be anyone's fault, but if you're not wearing a seatbelt...

We've literally just come away from a collision where

a lady's been ejected from the vehicle.

Admittedly, she took her seatbelt off to try and help the person

who's become unwell in the car but, as a result of that,

she's been ejected from the car and become injured.

I would never wish that upon you. OK?

If that goes into a wall, it's going to be quite horrible.

Jay's doing a wonderful job there.

He's keeping the road safe and, you know,

I quite admire the fact that he's so dedicated to what he's doing.

I look at someone like that guy there and

he can't wear the seatbelt because of his size and he's

forgotten his extension, and I... personally, I find that very hard.

Let's have a look at the facts.

This gentleman's reason for not wearing

a seatbelt is that it's not long enough to go round him.

But is this reason enough for Jay to let him off a fine?

The way I'm going to deal with it is by way of a fixed penalty notice.

Like I say, a £100 fine payable within 28 days.

I'm afraid not.

It's a £100 on-the-spot fine and, to be honest, after what we've

seen this morning, I wouldn't want to risk not belting up.

I suppose if you don't do it, people don't change their ways.

I got a ticket. £100 fine.

-Ouch.

-Yeah.

How do you feel about it?

-BLEEP

-off, really.

-Yeah.

-A bit gutted.

-Yeah.

-We were only going 200 yards down there as well.

-That's where the yard is, on Redmond Road.

-Is it?

Just turning into the yard.

What will you tell the missus when you get home?

-Don't know. I'll have to think about that.

-How will she take it?

-Will she be a bit annoyed?

-Yeah.

It's money we ain't got.

-It's ruined your weekend, hasn't it?

-Yeah.

I felt sorry for him. That's where I would never make a good copper,

because if I felt sorry for someone, I'd let them off.

I totally appreciate you've got a job to do.

What he did was wrong, it's illegal, and what you've done is right.

I'd have gone, "Oh, go on, don't do it again."

But I suppose people don't learn their lesson then, do they?

We can use education.

We can say to someone, "Here's a lesson, you've got to learn it."

But on that instance, I think, "No, you are a professional..."

Again, he's a lorry driver, he's a professional driver,

he's got the stuff. He should know better.

Ah, this green and pleasant land that I love so much...

..is under attack from fly-tippers.

We've all seen it.

The flat tyre on the side of the road,

the rusty fridge in a hedge,

or the smashed-up TV in a lay-by.

I go out into the countryside and I see mattresses,

I see plastic bottles, I see food bags,

and I don't like it.

Fly-tipping should be, like, fined on the spot.

It's a good way to discourage people immediately from what they're doing.

Somebody's dumping their rubbish for somebody else to have to clean up

-and I don't like it when I see that.

-No. I agree.

I think they should be fined if they could be caught, yes.

In Nelson, Pendle Council has stepped up the campaign to

clamp down on fly-tippers.

For those caught doing the deed,

the penalty may be up to £50,000...

..or, for some offenders, up to a five-year stint in prison.

Despite the threat of prosecution, some would still rather take

the risk than pay a small charge to the local tip like the rest of us.

Taking on the fight against the fly-tippers is Lesley Brooks...

Somewhere in this mess,

there's going to be an address.

..and her comrade in the battle against illegal dumping, Jon Yurek.

This is the irony of it,

is, "Made with household waste saved from landfill,"

and it's been fly-tipped.

Today, they're out on the prowl.

Sharing biscuits...

..and a van.

-RADIO PLAYS

-What the hell?

This could be a long day.

A local resident has given them a valuable tip-off.

Two bags have been dumped by two men

that pulled up in a van this morning.

Binmen have taken one bag but the other bag of rubbish is still

outside the rear of this property.

If they're able to prove it's been fly-tipped then there could be

a fine on the way for the culprit.

The good citizen that called it in is Shafqat.

Right, do you want to show me...?

So, in the morning I came out, we normally put our things out here,

-and next to our bins there were two extra bags.

-Right.

And I just wondered what it was.

I checked my CCTV and there was a van that pulled up over there,

-a blue van.

-Yeah.

-There were around four men in there.

I've got the CCTV, I've got a camera just fitted two weeks ago.

-There and one there.

-So...

-I can show you the CCTV if you want me to.

-Right, yes. Yes, please. Yeah. If I can see that.

-Yeah, no problem.

It was only recently I noticed my car was getting scratched

so just two weeks ago I had the CCTV cameras installed, just

basically to make sure the car wasn't damaged

by any people walking past.

Well, first I thought, I mean, "Why are they dumping rubbish?"

And they knew exactly where they were dumping it.

So first I didn't even look at the bags because I didn't know

what was in them. So I rang the council up

and they said just leave them there for evidence.

So it was a bit strange, really, cos they just dumped

the rubbish and then zoomed off.

Hopefully if they get caught and fined it'll stop other people

from doing this kind of stuff.

-Do you want me to take my shoes off?

-If you don't mind.

Glad to see you using your manners, Lesley.

-OK, so I've got the CCTV footage here for you.

-OK.

Oh, lovely.

OK, so here they are getting out of the van.

Right, OK.

Goes to the back...

-He knows exactly what he's doing.

-Yeah, yeah.

He's not looking around.

Shafqat's caught the whole sorry tale on camera...

..and there he is with two bags of rubbish.

Could this mean a fine for fly-tipping?

-Can you see him coming behind?

-Yeah.

-This is my bin here...

..and here he comes and he just dumps them there.

And he goes back.

-So there he's got some... looks like pillows.

-Yeah.

The other guy's now coming with the cushions.

He's coming back and you'll see him come over here and then dump them.

-You'll see, watch.

-Into the garden. Yeah.

And they're off.

But it doesn't stop at CCTV.

This budding Sherlock made sure he got the van's registration plate.

It's all evidence that could add towards a fine.

-So you can see the guy...

-Yeah.

-..sitting in the van there.

-Yeah.

-And then I got a good picture of the registration.

-Oh, right, brilliant.

Now, you'd think Shafqat couldn't be any more helpful,

but hold your horses.

-You can...

-Do you have an e-mail address? I can send you...

-Yeah, yeah.

-I've got the video footage already in an e-mail.

-I can send it to you.

-Oh, brilliant, yeah.

Have you got... a piece of paper? Okey doke.

Perfect. Thank you very much. I'll be in touch, then.

-I'll go and sort it out there. Thank you.

-Thank you.

Thank goodness there are some upstanding citizens around.

More often than not, people see stuff and then we just have

to search through it and find the evidence but on this occasion

we've obviously got the story from start to finish, if you will.

But before they can proceed with that fine,

they've got to bag and tag the crime scene.

It's a filthy job... but you know what they say.

What will happen with this,

we'll link it to the offender,

either from the person from the vehicle

or if there's any evidence amongst the fly-tip.

So Jon's just searching it and I'm taking photographs.

It's surely only a matter of time before Jon and Lesley catch up

with these fly-tippers, and when they do, they could face a £400 fine...

..or as much as a massive 50 grand.

The alternative isn't any better either.

Anyone fancy a five-year jail sentence?

I found a photo frame.

A baby!

Spare us the family photos, Jon.

OK, happy with that?

Yeah, happy with that. Right, OK, thank you. I'll be in touch.

See you later. Bye.

I think it's time we had a look at the facts.

Bags of rubbish dumped in an alleyway,

a van registration,

and the villains caught on CCTV.

OK, Lesley, what's the verdict?

Fly-tipping fixed penalty would be a £400 fine.

So it's a £400 fine for fly-tipping.

But that's not all.

They were working as drivers for a well-known charity...

but not any more.

They've said that they won't tolerate this sort of behaviour

and their contracts have been terminated.

So, fly-tippers, be warned.

Next up, I'm in Wiltshire...

..with traffic cop Warren Knight...

..the scourge of the county's speeders, drink-drivers,

uninsured motorists

and tubby truckers.

Tubby truckers?

Surely you can't get a fine for that.

-He's overloaded on his rear axle.

-What? This front on the tractor?

-Drive.

-Drive axle, yeah.

Oh, I see. The truck is overweight.

Actually, it's a serious business.

More than half of fatal accidents on motorways involve HGVs.

This driver has been pulled on a routine check at a weighbridge -

a large metal platform with scales underneath

on which he has to park his truck.

So is this beast of a truck going to land its Polish driver

in a whole load of bother in the shape of an on-the-spot fine?

Sadly, it's not just overloading

that has trucks like this inspected these days.

-Do you ever look in the back of these vehicles?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Often we will do, yeah.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Have you ever spotted the obvious?

-You know, people in there.

-Yeah, we had one about six weeks ago.

This was an interesting one.

-This had a human-trafficking marker on ANPR.

-Oh, OK.

So it came up to say it was involved in human trafficking.

We brought it into the weighbridge, it was overloaded,

the driver was a foreign national,

he had no driving licence, he had no insurance, and in the back of

this very overweight vehicle, I noticed something moving, and

there were three people underneath all the goods in the back.

-What happened to that person?

-He got arrested.

-Right.

Yeah, he got arrested.

I don't think this driver is facing arrest but

he could be staring down a pretty hefty fine.

On a lorry, each axle has its own weight limit

so, for a multi-axle vehicle, it can really add up.

Are you aware you're about to receive fines and penalties

for being overweight, possibly in the hundreds of pounds?

-It's a very big penalty.

-Very big penalty.

Yeah, but this is your law, yeah?

This is your rules and you have to be OK, yeah?

Yes.

If we come to England, we have to...

-You have to abide by the law.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Did the officer tell you how much it's going to cost you?

-Yeah.

-Possibly £400 or £500.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's an awful lot of money in fines.

Unfortunately.

The vehicle there, it's massively overweight.

The handling of the vehicle, the handling characteristics,

where the load shifts and moves about, obviously it just doesn't

manoeuvre the same way because the acceleration changes and the braking

is impacted because the vehicle isn't designed to carry that weight.

The brakes are designed for certain efficiencies.

It won't brake in the same way if it was a normal weight.

So he'd have to allow a far greater distance

and if he's not paying attention and he's not got enough time,

he'll just plough into the back of somebody.

So let's weigh up the facts.

As they say at diet clubs, apparently the scales don't lie,

and that is one heavy truck.

So what's the damage?

Now what's happening here?

My colleague's going to issue him with a fixed penalty notice.

-It doesn't attract points, this type of offence.

-Yeah.

But it will attract a fine which,

because he lives outside the UK, that fine is payable now, basically.

Come here, buddy.

This fine, you know, has got to be paid tonight. Did you know that?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-Yeah?

-Everything is OK, yeah.

-Oh, good! I hope it is.

-Yeah.

It turns out he was only overweight on two axles

so it's a £200 on-the-spot fine,

and when I say on-the-spot, this time I mean on-the-spot.

What happens if his card doesn't go through, which I think is going...

that's what's happening now, and he hasn't got enough?

He would get arrested, taken to the police station,

-put before the court in the morning.

-Oh, wow.

-Potentially, yeah.

If he can't pay. If he can't pay... He has to pay his fine,

-because if we let him go, he'll never pay his fine.

-Yeah.

Unlike in the UK, where we would send a summons to the UK address,

we can't do that with the EU, because it's very difficult...

-Of course.

-..to serve the summons in the first place.

So the fine will have to be paid.

His problems are not over yet because his credit card's not

going through and he's trying to get his bosses in Germany to pay the bill.

If it doesn't get paid,

Paul from Poland is going to be spending the night here.

It's cold, it's wet, it's miserable,

it's a Sunday evening and the football's on.

He might be staying here - I'm certainly not.