Master Legal

FB’s Legal Clinic with Andrew Dalton.

QI am a really good rider and am super quick, I can wheelie and stoppie at will. I can wheelie really easily two-up with my missus on the back. I also admit that I am a total show-off. I get my mates to record me doing this and it goes up on social media. Obviously, I disguise my number plate before I get up to my tricks.

I have heard that people can be prosecuted from social media uploads showing stunt riding. Am I likely to be nicked?

AI do not know if you are likely to be nicked, because I do not know if you have come to police attention, but you certainly can be nicked. Having seen your videos you are indeed extraordinarily good at wheelies and stoppies. You have video of yourself mono wheeling at speed on what is obviously an open UK road. You also have videos of you, clearly taken by a passenger at eye-watering speeds on your back wheel, but these videos have clearly been taken overseas. I hope the speedo was in kph and even that was blistering speed. Being honest, I did not actually know anyone could wheelie that fast. In answer to your question you can be prosecuted for dangerous riding on the strength of video evidence which you publicise. You have a moderately distinctive bike, and your helmet is not rare, but it is quite distinctive. From the videos that you have sent me links to, I can see that you are a man of about average height and build and two-up, both you and your pillion always wear the same kit. Without a shadow of a doubt you are riding dangerously. The fact that you are spectacularly good at wheelies is not a defence in law to dangerous riding. A pillion being carried is an aggravating feature in any sentencing as you are endangering a passenger. The next question is, will you be prosecuted? I suspect that you may already be on a fair few dashcams. You seem entirely comfortable overtaking other vehicles on one wheel. By the law of averages, some of those cars will have dashcams. Some of those drivers may well forward on their footage to the Police. Whilst I recognise the fact that you are supremely confident and competent at high-speed wheelies, the courts will not take into account your skills. It is dangerous driving, plain and simple, which as an offence which can be tried in the Crown Court does not have the time limitations of lesser road traffic offences. In the social media posts that you have put up you are a bit more ‘forensically aware’, but you tell me you wheelie regularly with your number plate on if you are not YouTube showing off. Your number plate is off when you are organising your filming, but your bike sold 65,000.00 versions in the whole world over many years, and there have been various model changes. There will be a limited pool of your precise bike in the UK, more so registered around where you give free stunt shows. If the Police cluster your riding around your area they could probably reduce the numbers of your bike in your colour, around your play area to single figures. They have the power to search your property if they have reasonable grounds to suspect you have committed and offence. They can bang you up, and search your house without a warrant. If your helmet, boots and leathers match your body shape and that of your wife match social media videos, I reckon you stand a decent chance of being convicted. As a firm we have occasionally been involved in challenging these police prosecutions and the police methodology is intelligence lead policing. They will realise there are incidents of riding which they (properly) regard as dangerous. Police intelligence analysis will cluster where the riding happened, and then they will use standard policing methods to narrow down the search. From the videos, I can see a pretty clear pattern. By the lack of trucks or vans on the road, I deduce most of your riding takes place at the weekends. There are a number of road signs, most of which centre around one county and in particular one town. I have already narrowed you down, just on your own social media, to a relatively small geographic area, and I am not Sherlock Holmes. All of your video footage is on warm, sunny days, so the Police, for a fairly minimal resource, can park an unmarked Ford Mondeo outside your house on a weekend which is forecast to be warm and dry in the summer, and watch your precise bike leave your garage with you wearing the same kit as you do in all your YouTube malarkeys. They now know who you are, where you live and the registration number of your bike. If the Police do not prioritise catching you then you will only be caught randomly, but with intelligence lead policing, you are a remarkable easy nick. You can put identity in issue, but the more offensive and frequent your riding, the more effort the Police will put into nicking you. They will put a lot of forensic evidence into proving you are the rider. The Police will often use a body mapping expert showing fixed points on the rider matched exactly to the accused and the Courts are often persuaded by identical boots, leathers, gloves and helmet being found in the rider’s garage. I suspect if the Police get a few complaints with some dash cam evidence you will become a road traffic policing target, if the Police have sufficient budget to actually do their job.