Biker jailed for denying he owned vehicle
A MOTORCYCLIST who passed a cyclist while travelling at high speed and doing a wheelie has been handed a jail sentence after lying about who owned the motorbike.
The reckless riding by Daniel Allegretto was caught on video by the cyclist, who had a camera attached to his bike, as both descended into Tonypandy on the A4061 Bwlch Road.
Allegretto passed dangerously close to the cyclist on his Suzuki GSXR 750 and pulled away at high speed, all the while doing a wheelie.
The footage was sent to Operation Snap – an initiative which encourages the public to submit evidence of poor driving to the police.
When officers from South Wales Police contacted Allegretto, the registered keeper of the motorbike, he told them it wasn’t him riding because he didn’t own the bike at the time.
He returned the documents and named someone else from the Merthyr area as being the rider at the time of the offence, which happened in June 2019.
But when police contacted this individual, he told them he didn’t own the bike and had in fact been out of the country on a family holiday at the time of the incident.
Allegretto, from Ogmore Vale, disputed this and even produced falsified documentation stating he had sold the motorcycle on the morning prior to the offence.
Unwilling to let it go, having deemed the manner of riding to fall far below what is expected from a careful and competent rider, Sergeant 3325 Pearce – an inquiry officer for GoSafe, which runs Operation Snap – opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the offence and subsequent offence of perverting the course of justice.
Allegretto eventually appeared in court after a protracted investigation, which lasted nearly two years, showed the motorbike was not sold at the time and was being ridden by him.
He appeared at Cardiff Crown Court last month, and on March 12 he was found guilty of perverting the course of justice.
After the verdict, Allegretto was handed a sixmonth sentence and fined £1,100.
Teresa Ciano, the partnership manager, said:
“The excellent work demonstrated by Sergeant Pearce shows the real consequence for people who go to great lengths to avoid having motoring offences registered in their names.
“The sentence reflects the seriousness of the offence and highlights the risk in the attitude of the offender towards careless and dangerous driving, which is a factor in serious and fatal collisions on our roads.”
Dashcam footage submitted to GoSafe has captured the very worst cases of dangerous driving in Wales since the initiative started.
Chief Inspector Helen Coulthard, from South Wales Police specialist operations, said she hoped the conviction would send out a clear message to motorists and also provide some reassurance to vulnerable road-users such as cyclists and horse-riders.
She added: “I would actively encourage members of the public to submit video footage to the Operation Snap team via the online facility, should they see motorists failing to heed this advice and committing offences or acting in a manner which endangers others.
“As this case demonstrates, such reports will be thoroughly investigated.”