8 months prison sentence for giving false details in Operation Snap submission

A man has been sentenced to 8 months in prison and disqualified from driving for 10 months after providing false details following an Operation Snap submission.

A GoSafe investigation uncovered that Samal Mawlood had been involved in a wider scam that used an unknowing victim’s details to avoid prosecution, after his black Audi was seen performing a dangerous overtake on the A48 near Pensarn, Carmarthen on 22nd May 2019.

Dashcam footage of the black Audi A5 was submitted to GoSafe as part of Operation Snap. A Notice of Intended Prosecution was then sent to the registered keeper, Samal Mawlood, who claimed he was not driving at the time of the alleged offence. He instead named a man from the Birmingham area, stating that this man had borrowed his vehicle on the day of the alleged offence.

Letters were subsequently sent to the Birmingham address and police received confirmation that this man had been driving at the time. Following this confirmation, all further correspondence was ignored, and the case was heard in the Birmingham man’s absence.

However, 10 months after the case was concluded, GoSafe were contacted by this man, who claimed that his details had been falsely provided to the police. He had discovered he had been convicted of the offence after he was declined car insurance.

GoSafe launched an investigation into these claims, with local enquiries, telecommunications checks, employer checks and bank transactions showing that he had not been in Wales at the time of the offence. During the investigation, he also received further points on his license for driving offences he was not responsible for. It was discovered that someone had been supplying his details to drivers around the country as part of a scam to avoid possible prosecution after committing driving offences.

Samal Mawlood was interviewed in relation to the original offence involving his black Audi A5. Telecommunications work showed that his phone had been in the relevant location at the time of the offence. After initially admitting that the phone had been in his possession, Mr Mawlood later claimed that his mobile had been left in the vehicle whilst the man from Birmingham had borrowed it.

The telecommunications work showed that multiple calls had been made from Mr Mawlood’s phone close to the time of the offence. These calls were also shown to have come from near the Pensarn area. Enquiries with the recipients of the calls confirmed that they all knew Samal Mawlood but had no prior knowledge of the driver he named.

Samal Mawlood appeared at Swansea Crown Court on Tuesday, 3rd May 2022, for Perverting the Course of Justice. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 8 months in prison and was disqualified from driving for 10 months.

If Mr Mawlood had provided his details correctly and admitted the offence when he first received the Notice of Intended Prosecution, he would have either received 3 points on his license, alongside a fine, or needed to attend a driver improvement course.

If you believe you have witnessed dangerous driving or other driving offences on the road, you can submit photographic and video evidence to GoSafe at Operation SNAP (gosafesnap.wales).