Nottingham, England - Adam Campion of Hucknall in Nottinghamshire has given entirely new meaning to the term ‘Ride it like you stole it’, with a handheld cellphone video showing the instrument panel of the stolen Yamaha R1 he was riding, with the speedometer showing 189.
That’s 189 miles per hour, sports fans; Campion was filming himself riding one-handed at just over 300km/h. And it was that video that ultimately put him away. Here’s how the Nottinghamshire police did it:
Almost two years ago, in late September 2016, Notts cops were searching an abandoned car in Orchard Court, Hucknall, when they found a number plate in the boot that belonged to a stolen motorcycle. Further enquiries linked the car - and thus the stolen bike - to Campion, 26, enabling the police to obtain a search warrant and raid Campion’s home.
There they found a laptop with hundreds of pictures and videos of people hooning on bikes on the public roads - speeding, pulling huge wheelies, riding through red lights, slicing dangerously through the traffic and even riding on the wrong side of the road.
Forensic investigators went through hours of video footage, identifying the bikes being ridden and linking them to footage and still images showing the riders - and then they used facial recognition software to positively identify Campion in at least five video clips, including the 300km/h selfie, even though he was wearing a helmet in some of the shots.
Dead to rights
And that was it - after 21 months of following up leads and squinting at fuzzy images on computer screens, they finally had their man dead to rights. Campion pleaded guilty last week at Nottingham Crown Court to five counts of dangerous driving and one count of assisting an offender in the retention of stolen goods.
He was sentenced to 21 months in jail, ironically the same length of time that it took the cops to nail him. And the investigation is continuing, as the forensics nerds are hoping to identify the other riders in the videos as well.
Ashfield district commander Inspector Glenn Longden said: “Although this investigation was immensely complex and time consuming, the result in court has been satisfying.
“I hope this prison sentence will make those dangerous drivers and riders who think they are above the law think twice. No matter how long it takes, we’ll bring them to justice.”
And he posted this compilation of Campion’s most dangerous antics on the Notts Police Facebook page: