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Some people are unbelievable…
Vigilante biker reports speeders to police
By Steve Farrell of MCN29 October 2008 10:15
A vigilante motorcyclist has revealed how he rides dead on the speed limit, films bikers who overtake and hands the footage to police.
Riding instructor Jeff Smith uses a helmet-mounted camera to film continuously for up to three hours while riding his ex-police Honda Pan European.
The 62-year-old from Southampton said: “I record all the idiots that, while I’m doing the normal correct speed, are flying past at 80 or 90mph.
“If someone overtakes at a bit extra speed in a 30mph zone, I would also report them because they shouldn’t be doing it.
“I know various police officers. I just download the film onto a DVD and give them a disc and it’s down to them what they do.
“I estimate people’s speeds, pass film on to police and it’s down to them whether they catch them next time.”
Oddball Smith, who claims to never break the speed limit, believes his efforts are necessary to tackle a plague of irresponsible riding. He said: “As you will appreciate, it’s mainly because we get a lot of re-born bikers at the moment.
“I met one recently who said: ‘I only passed my test two months ago and I’ve bought an R1.’ I said: ‘You’re a bloody idiot. Did you go back to your training school and ask them to teach you how to ride it?’”
The former courier isn’t sure whether anyone has been charged based on his evidence but hopes his efforts have led police to target motorcyclists more. “I know the police do act,” he said. “Yesterday at a local bike meet we had the roads policing unit there. Every weekend now Hampshire Police are out all over and so is East Sussex when we come into their area, which is good.”
A spokeswoman for Hampshire Police was unaware of Smith’s actions. Asked what the force would do with his footage, she said: “We would look at it.”
Source:
https://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/News/newsresults/mcn/2008/October/27-31/oct2908-vigilante-biker/what a nobber!
I wonder if he can be done for breaching the data protection act or something like that for filming people without their express consent?
If he never breaks the speed limit no wonder he’s an ex-courier! LOL
I’d find it hilarious if he got caught doing 31mph in a 30 zone and they made an example of him! Muppet jobs-worth wannabe-copper!
Had a bit of a think about this guy, glad that the MCN describe him as oddball. If I’m out for a nice run (as against a blast) and don’t wish to “get noticed” I will, as will most of us, sit just at the limit when road and traffic conditions allow, so no problem there! If this guy sits on the motorway bang on 70 then he sure would be causing a logjam, and also he risks his own life and limb when lorrys creep past and cut him up, mind you he’d no doubt think the risk worthwhile as he films a vast quantity of all types of vehicles breaking the limit!
Now correct me on this one, I believe that advanced drivers/riders using official roadcraft HMSO publications are taught to overtake other vehicles as fast as possible, regardless of speed, to get themselves back into a safe situation, if I’m right then this guy believes its his right to pass on footage of advanced drivers/riders doing what Official Publications teach.
If you think I’m going off at a tangent lets put it this way, an Official Position I once held has given me personnal experience of what ‘the man on the beat’ thinks about this kind of Maverick (eg nonconformist, independent, loner), and also what will be done with his recordings. The MCN feeback on this report is currently showing 95% negative I wonder why? I also wonder, does he see himself as being perfect and useful in a fight against speeding bikers, if so he’s a mightily disallusioned MAVERICK. His going public about recording other road users will hopefully will work against him.what a pr!ck. whats the bloody point!!?
does he realise that people arnt meant to use cameras on their bikes? and anyway if hes so far up his arse saying people shouldnt do this and all that whys he not wearing correct full motorcycle clothing??in conclusion he seems to be a moron, if any of you see him out and about kick him in the bo!!ocks for me.
Update on his murky past:
A vigilante motorcyclist who films other bikers speeding is an ex-lag with a string of previous driving convictions, MCN can reveal.
We recently revealed how busybody Geoff Smith, 62, spends his days riding precisely on the speed limit while filming with a helmet camera and hands footage of riders who overtake to police.
But the oddball has a long list of convictions of his own, including driving without a licence, MoT, or insurance – and speeding.
Most bizarrely, he was once jailed for stealing donations to a private ambulance charity – which he’d set up so he could live out his fantasy of riding with flashing lights and a siren.
It also seems Smith hasn’t been entirely truthful about his life now. He had claimed to be a riding instructor but now admits he is not. Despite the ‘CBT’ stickers on his bike, he is not a qualified CBT instructor.
Smith was given a six-month jail sentence suspended to three in 2001 for stealing £1,800 donated to Solent Ambulance Service plus a Triumph Trophy on loan to the charity.
The charity’s function was to deliver organs to hospitals. But a police officer who caught Smith driving without a licence in a car done up to look like an ambulance said: “The only organ he could transport is some liver from the butcher’s.”
Confronted over his past, Smith claimed Solent Ambulance Service had done a “proper and professional job” of delivering organs and tissue to London hospitals. He claimed an accountant had incorrectly advised him he could take some of the donations.
He said: “I have no regrets about doing what I did, helping to save people’s lives.”
For more on Smith’s weird past, including how cops found him wearing an earpiece connected to nothing, get MCN, on sale now.Well he’s crashed and the bike has been written off by the insurers, I bet thats not the end though, once a t*sser always a t*sser. Heres the report from this weeks rag………..
A motorcyclist who claimed to spend his spare time filming other riders and handing footage to police has written off his bike in a crash.
Geoff Smith boasted last year of riding at the speed limit and sending police footage recorded on his helmet camera of other motorcyclists overtaking.
“I record all the idiots that, while I’m doing the normal correct speed, are flying past at 80 or 90mph,” he said at the time.
Despite having no powers to stop he even admitted lecturing riders at the roadside on his Honda Pan European, which then resembled a police motorcycle thanks to livery and extra lights added by himself.
But riders are safe from Smith’s prying after he did this to his bike in a collision with a car. Smith, 63, from Southampton, suffered cuts and bruises while the ex-police Pan, which has done over 200,000 miles, has been written off by insurers.
Smith told MCN: “I was knocked off by a taxi driver. I’ve done my shoulder and back. I’m still getting better. My shoulder is bruised and badly swollen.”
Smith enraged MCN readers when we revealed his own record was far from unblemished, with prior convictions including driving without a licence and speeding.
Most bizarrely, it emerged he’d been jailed for running a crooked ambulance charity.
Solent Ambulance Service was supposed to deliver human organs for transplants but Smith had pocketed donations while living out a fantasy of driving with flashing lights and a siren.
His latest venture appears to be a courier firm. The phone number blanked out in our picture is his own.
Smith is understood to be planning to buy the bike back from the insurers and repair it.
awwhhh what a shame…..he wasnt killed
was that in bad taste?
if he cant even work out how to be legal hows he going to fix a bike :S
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