Near Miss of the Day 684: Punishment pass in Pimlico sees Jaguar driver get fined

We’re off to Pimlico in central London today for our Near Miss of the Day video, with a Jaguar driver making a punishment pass on a cyclist then insisting he would do the same thing again – and apparently rejecting the offer of a driver awareness course and instead copping a fine plus points on his licence.

The incident, filmed by road.cc reader Silvio – who says on his Twitter bio that he was “was hit by a car in 2011 and started recording my journeys with a camera on my helmet” – and posted to his YouTube channel, happened in July on Belgrave Road.

In the description to the video on YouTube, Silvio said: “A Jaguar driver close passed me whilst having plenty of space to his right on what appeared to be a punishment close pass.

“I politely asked him to leave more space next time, and this could have ended right there with an apology.

“Instead he told me I was taking too much space on the road and that he would do it again.

“As you can see on the video he did not see anything wrong with using his vehicle to intimidate another road user and when confronted he said he would do it again.

“I reported this driver for close passing me, and also careless or inconsiderate driving. He was sent a Notice of Intended Prosecution by the police.

“It seems that either the driver refuse to do a self-improvement course or the police thought the offender did not deserve the usual course as it would not have reflected the seriousness of the incident.

“So, months later I had confirmation that the driver had points of his license and had to pay a fine instead. I hope this is a lesson for him and other drivers!

“Close passing a cyclist is an offence. This means that if you are driving too close to a cyclist, it is possible that you can receive a fixed penalty of 6 penalty points and a above £100.00 fine.

“If the case is brought before the court, careless driving can see you receive anywhere from 3-9 penalty points, a fine of between 50%-150% of your weekly income, or even a discretionary disqualification from driving.

“Let’s don’t forget that most close passes are also pointless as drivers do it only to get stuck in traffic a few seconds later,” he added.

> Near Miss of the Day turns 100 - Why do we do the feature and what have we learnt from it?

Over the years road.cc has reported on literally hundreds of close passes and near misses involving badly driven vehicles from every corner of the country – so many, in fact, that we’ve decided to turn the phenomenon into a regular feature on the site. One day hopefully we will run out of close passes and near misses to report on, but until that happy day arrives, Near Miss of the Day will keep rolling on.

If you’ve caught on camera a close encounter of the uncomfortable kind with another road user that you’d like to share with the wider cycling community please send it to us at info [at] road.cc or send us a message via the road.cc Facebook page.

If the video is on YouTube, please send us a link, if not we can add any footage you supply to our YouTube channel as an unlisted video (so it won't show up on searches).

Please also let us know whether you contacted the police and if so what their reaction was, as well as the reaction of the vehicle operator if it was a bus, lorry or van with company markings etc.

> What to do if you capture a near miss or close pass (or worse) on camera while cycling