Evidence & investigations · footage for claims & police
Getting footage is half the job; getting it in a form insurers and police will act on is the other half. That means moving before the loop does, knowing your access rights, and exporting with the continuity details that turn video into evidence.
Talk it through, in confidence
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| The rule | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| ~31-day retention convention | A common default, not a legal duty — many systems loop far sooner | Request preservation the same day |
| One-month SAR response | The operator's clock, extendable for complex requests | Send yours immediately, in writing |
| Third-party redaction | Other identifiable people will be blurred in SAR footage | Expect it; it's lawful and normal |
| Home CCTV beyond the boundary | Cameras covering the street or neighbours fall under data-protection law | Operators owe SAR answers too |
| Evidential continuity | Who held the footage, how it was copied, whether it changed | Hashes and a method note travel with ours |
Your device is logged with its own case reference the moment it arrives. An engineer assesses the fault, confirms what's actually recoverable, and you get a fixed price in writing — no diagnosis fee, no obligation, and no paid work until you say go.
The first act is a preservation request to whoever holds the footage — same day, in writing — while we establish the system's realistic loop window.
Footage is recovered from the drive image and exported twice: a standard MP4 anyone can play, and the native export with its player, for continuity.
Hashes, a method note and continuity records travel with the footage — the difference between a clip on a memory stick and evidence an insurer or court can rely on.
Before you pay the recovery fee you approve a full listing of what came back. Your data returns on new media with free return postage, and the case only closes once you've confirmed everything opens on your side.
Why insurers care this much: the ABI reported in November 2025 that insurers detected £1.16 billion of fraudulent claims in 2024 — over 51,000 of them motor scams worth £576 million. Footage is how genuine claims get paid fast and staged ones get caught, which is exactly why an exhibit-grade export outperforms a clip.
A disputed warehouse collision, an insurer asking questions, and a recorder that had already looped past the incident — except for the deleted export a manager had made and binned. Recovered from the drive, hashed, documented, and the claim closed without a hearing.
Yes — a subject access request under UK GDPR. The operator has one calendar month to respond, will blur other identifiable people, and can't ordinarily charge for it.
Usually by asking the operator, who typically provides it voluntarily; formal data-protection routes and court orders exist for when they don't.
There's no statutory period — around 31 days is a common convention under the storage-limitation principle, and busy systems often loop sooner. Treat every request as urgent.
Playable and provable: a standard MP4 plus the recorder's native export, with hashes and a note of how it was obtained. We supply exactly that bundle.
Loops overwrite, artefacts age, deadlines pass. Open a case first — the scoping conversation is free and confidential either way.