A HGV driver who was convicted for dangerous driving has successfully applied to overturn his conviction based on new expert evidence uncovered by the miscarriages of justice watchdog.

Paul Down was convicted in 2024 of driving without due care and attention after officers in an unmarked police car pulled him over for swerving in the inside lane into the hard shoulder. He pled not guilty, but was convicted in the magistrates court and received a £1,000 fine and six penalty points, He was also ordered to pay the legal costs.

An expert instructed by the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) analysed the dashcam footage used at the original trial and concluded that an no point in the footage did the HGV appear to cross over the white lines. The body, which is the only with the power to refer a case back to court where an appeal has failed, said this new evidence means there is a real possibility the conviction will be overturned.

CCRC Chair Dame Vera Baird KC said: ‘It is not well known that the CCRC has a statutory obligation to review cases, if an application comes to us, where there has been a conviction at the magistrates’ court and an appeal to the crown court has been dismissed… Although these are smaller cases, they can have a profound impact on the defendant if they are wrongly convicted. For instance, someone with a conviction may be unemployable in their trade; a conviction can trigger a Disclosure and Barring entry which might block someone, for life, from working with children. Yet often people are unrepresented at the magistrates’ court, and the law is, arguably, less uniformly applied.’