Met apologises to bike vigilante accused of being danger on road

THE Metropolitan Police has apologised to a vigilante cyclist who was accused of posing a danger to road users after highlighting inappropriate driving.

Dave Clifton, 56, was riding through Belgravia in central London on Aug 22 last year when he captured a Range Rover driver appearing to use his mobile phone at the wheel.

Footage of the incident was caught on Mr Clifton’s helmet camera and was submitted to police as evidence to support a potential prosecution.

However, Mr Clifton, an IT consultant from Wimbledon, south London, was warned he faced being hauled before the courts charged with riding his bicycle without due care and attention. The driver received a letter containing advice on road safety standards.

Describing the prosecution as “ludicrous” and “malicious”, Mr Clifton contacted the Met in August and September last year but was told the case would proceed. However on Tuesday, one day before his trial was scheduled to take place, the police dropped the case and apologised to Mr Clifton for any “stress and inconvenience” it had caused.

The Met said the footage he submitted was now being used as an internal training guide to its public reporting team.

Legal documents seen by the Evening Standard show a Met employee in the traffic division brought a criminal case against Mr Clifton after inspecting his footage. The cyclist was accused of riding on the wrong side of the road towards an oncoming motorbike that was filtering between traffic.

It was also claimed his actions “could pose a danger to other road users”.

Mr Clifton told the Evening Standard: “I was cycling along Pont Street behind a van. I looked behind me and, when I looked back, the van had veered into the taxi rank to avoid a motorcyclist that was on the wrong side of the road, so I braked and got out of his way. I didn’t think anything of it, motorcyclists do this all the time.

“But the Metropolitan Police said that I was on the wrong side of the road.”

However on Tuesday, a Met manager contacted Mr Clifton to say his footage had been reviewed and the case was being abandoned.

Mr Clifton said he was disappointed with the Met’s letter, adding: “Instead of admitting that someone made a mistake – [that] no offence was committed, and they knew they would lose publicly in court – they suggest that they are responding to a query, they’ve done me a favour and the case was dropped because of lack of evidence.

“Are the Metropolitan Police incapable of admitting an error?”

He also said he was surprised the force brought criminal charges rather than a fixed penalty notice.

A spokesman for the Met Police said: “We have apologised to Mr Clifton for the stress and inconvenience caused by this matter.”