Investigations & evidence · footage a claim can rest on
A claims handler, or the officer taking the report, has to believe what is on the screen, and that belief is built before the file ever leaves the recorder: a written hold put in while the loop still covers the window, the statutory rights used the way they were meant to be used, and a release that goes out with hash values and a dated log of who held what. Getting the footage back is the smaller half of the work.
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| What applies | What is behind it | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The 31-day custom | Nothing in law fixes it, and a busy recorder laps itself well within a month | Ask for it to be held that day |
| One calendar month to reply | Counting starts the day your request lands with the operator | Put yours in writing today |
| Other people blurred out | Anyone else identifiable has to be hidden before you get a copy | It is a duty owed, not a stall |
| A doorbell unit pointed at the pavement | The moment a home camera sees past its own boundary, its owner picks up the duties | A private household must answer too |
| Continuity of handling | Logged at every stage, from the disk inside the box to the copy that leaves us | Nothing goes out without SHA-256 values and a signed account of the method |
Every item gets a case number of its own the day it lands. An engineer then works out what has actually failed and tells you plainly which files have a real chance of coming back and which do not. Only then does a price follow: one figure, fixed, in writing, and it costs you nothing to see it. Nothing is charged until you say yes.
A written hold goes to whoever owns the system straight away, and then we work out the recorder's real retention — a number that follows from camera count and frame rate, not from anything printed in the manual.
Out of the image come two: an MP4 that plays on any machine, plus the recorder's own format, often a .dav or a similar wrapper, with the player it needs.
With the video go a SHA-256 value per file, a written account of how each copy was produced, and a dated log of who handled what. Those three are the difference between a clip forwarded by email and an exhibit a court or an insurer can lean on.
No invoice is raised until the full list of recovered files has sat in front of you and you have said go ahead. Your data comes back on media we buy new, posted at our expense, and the job is not closed here until every file has opened on your own machine.
Why an insurer cares: detected claims fraud reached £1.16 billion in 2024, on ABI figures released in November 2025, and 51,700 motor cases made up £576 million of it. Clear video settles a genuine claim faster and sinks a staged one, but only when it turns up documented instead of forwarded.
By the time an insurer wanted proof that two vans had hit each other in a yard, that day had gone round the loop weeks earlier. One export existed, made by a manager, and it had since been deleted off an office PC. We got it back from that machine, hashed it, documented the method, and the claim was settled without a hearing.
Yes. You are personal data when you are on the recording, which puts it within reach of a subject access request. The shop gets one calendar month, has to blur anyone else who could be recognised, and a fee is unusual.
Ask plainly first, because most operators simply send a copy over. Where you are turned down, two formal routes stay open to you: the data-protection request, and an application to the court.
Faster than most owners think. No law fixes a retention period at all; data-protection rules say only that nothing be kept beyond need, and 31 days grew up as the convention. A busy multi-camera system laps that comfortably.
It has to open on any machine and survive being questioned, so the package carries an ordinary MP4, the recorder's own file, a hash for each, and a written account of how they were made.
Every hour the recorder runs, more of what you need is gone, and the deadline stays where it is. Book it in now: the diagnosis is free and stays confidential.