So the other day I was in my van, waiting at a light to turn right at a junction. I noticed two young men approaching on bikes wearing black, no helmets, face masked. I then noticed one was on a Suron and using the old push the other bike - which was a superbike. Safe to assume both bikes were stolen. My light changed and I began to turn in front of the two kids - who did not slow down and started to run through their red light into my path. In a moment I had the perfect opportunity to hit them with my van and stop the obvious theft. At the same time damaging the stolen bike, my van, probably injuring the rider and making myself liable for dangerous driving causing harm and damage. Making insurance harder (if not impossible) for me to attain. I didn't hit them, I braked suddenly to avoid the collision. I then spent the next hour observing police zipping about the neighbourhood trying to catch them. I have been livid about this ever since. Even when we see crime taking place and have an opportunity to intervene - our best action is to do nothing.
You did the right thing. The only exeption would be if there was a danger to life. Had you skittled these fuckpigs you’d now be facing a world of pain…
I had a similar experience last week on a busy city road when I was out in the car. Two balaclava'd scrotes on a Suron came straight at me on my side of the road. My first instinct was to hit them off but, as you say, vehicle damage, scrotes damage wouldn't do me any good! Everyone is running scared and we, and plod, can't seem to do anything. Also it gets us a bad name too as bikers. We need vigilante gangs...
Fight fire with fire. We could drive a vehicle (doesn't need to be your own), add a cloned plate, wear a mask and go out hunting.
Yes, but if I did that I'd be too nice & honest to pull it off The cnuts who cut the cat off my car were driving a stolen car... There's no risk of them and the Suron scrotes getting caught as there's no plod about. What can we do?
Yeah. It’s hardly ideal. The correct option on the s.172 notice is: “I was not the driver of the vehicle at the time of the alleged offence and believe the driver to be the person I have identified below”, then write “Unknown. Suspect cloned VRN” in the boxes and (if they have it), attach evidence in support. It’s galling to have to, in effect, pre-emptively prove your innocence by way of an alibi, but that’s the sort of country we have been living in for decades now. Hopefully the keeper won’t be prosecuted for failing to comply with the notice but if they are, then s.172(4) provides: “A person shall not be guilty of an offence by virtue of paragraph (a) of subsection (2) above if he shows that he did not know and could not with reasonable diligence have ascertained who the driver of the vehicle was.” The notice really should also have a “I know nothing” box, but that would be far too much like common sense.
My late FiL had a lovely Alfa V6. He got a ticket from London, clearly showing a Jag with the same plate, running a red light. Fought it and won, but crucially had to go to court in London, from Bristol. I sold my Mercedes, did the online DVLA thing, got a ticket from Portsmouth for parking, went all the way to bailiffs and court. It wasn't on a Mercedes. My VW camper, Liverpool police tried to do me for an offence that happened before I owned it. Asked for and got sent the pictures, different van. Got a NIP for speeding from somewhere between Reading and Swindon, I assume on a camera van. I had no clue where. I could prove I was working in London at the time and my bike was at home. Asked for the picture and got sent a photo of a car, deffo not an 888. All these are cloned plates incidents.
What disappoints me more, is the total absence of intelligence on the part of the person responsible for checking the “evidence” when the claims are disputed. Andy
