Taking work now — the first look is freeSpinning disks in a machine Quicker still, give us a ring:0203 0868633
ADR Advanced Data Recovery 0203 0868633 Price my job
ADR / Evidence, claims and footage / Footage for insurers and disputes

Evidence work · footage that survives being argued with

CCTV evidence for insurers and police. Lifting the clip is easy. Making it stand up is the work.

Write and send the hold request today, while the loop is still short of the half hour in which you are concerned. There is no charge involved, and it is the one action that nobody else can take for you. The clip will end up in front of a claims assessor or a Metropolitan Police officer, who has to be convinced that this is indeed what was recorded, and that argument is won at the unit, not at some desk three weeks down the line. Data protection rights to images you appear in exist by virtue of data protection legislation, and it is the act of utilising these rights that causes a copy of the image to be extracted. All files leave this workbench hashed and logged. Each file is given a dated log identifying all individuals who have had possession of the file. In addition, the process used to create the file is documented. Recovery itself costs £400 + VAT, and that is the smaller half of the job; the paperwork wrapped round a clip is what gives it any value. If the system belongs to somebody else, you need to get their permission before anything else.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs Handled as an exhibit from the moment it arrives Each hour the loop covers more of what is left

Talk it over with an engineer, in confidence
0203 0868633

How a copy actually gets released.

Through subject accessOperators are required by UK GDPR to provide you with copies of any video images they have captured in which you can be identified. The response should occur within one calendar month. Any other identifiable persons in the video are pixelated prior to release. Fees are typically only assessed against you in rare instances.
The hold, put in writingAn email submitted on the same day carries greater significance than a solicitor’s letter two weeks later. Identify the camera, along with the relevant 30-minute time frame. Write formally requesting that the associated material remain intact.
When an officer asksIf an officer requests the footage, the operator provides it. Most footage entering a Metropolitan Police enquiry, or a City of London Police one, does so through this informal mechanism. Deny the request and the process becomes formalised: a data-protection request followed by an application to court.
What this bench can doA disk that someone formatted by accident. A recorder that had been stopped before the night in question. An office PC where the exported file was removed. Usually files such as these are restored. £400 + VAT, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Whatever has been written over by the loop is recovered for no one.

Timing, and the law behind it.

Not listed? Tell us what it does →
What it turns onThe usual reason for itWhere that leaves you
Retention: the usual mythStatute does not specify one. It is arithmetic: disk size, camera count, frame rateRequest today that it be kept
One calendar month timeframe to respondThe month begins when the request reaches the operator, not when it is readIn writing, not by telephone
Other people get blurredIdentifiable faces are pixelated prior to release of the copyA duty owed, not an excuse
A doorbell lens pointing at a driveA household camera directed past your boundary: the same duties applyDomestic cameras count as well
Custody, on paperLogged throughout the process, from the recorder still containing the disk to the returned copyEach file goes out with a SHA-256 value and a signed method statement for its creation
How it reaches us: get a straight quote first (via phone or form), then send it via tracked, insured post or drop it off at our Guildford intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed); our Guildford lab takes it in, and the cost of sending it back to you is on us. Unsure what to put with it when sending it to us? Give us a ring before sealing your box and we'll put you through to an engineer who can tell you what you need to include and what needs to stay behind. All of this information is also outlined on our guide to packing and posting.

The sequence we follow.

Other jobs on the log →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

As soon as your parcel arrives here, an engineer assigns a case number that same day, prior to determining what has really failed, which is the first thing done and costs you nothing. In addition to a note of what can and cannot be recovered from your drive, you will receive at the same time the fixed, written price for restoring what can be recovered. You can accept this quote, or decline it, which will result in no further obligation on your part and nothing owed to us.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNothing owed at this stage
02

Halt the overwriting first

The written hold notification goes directly to whoever runs the system, and where that is not you, their permission must be obtained first. Following that, someone has to establish honestly how far back the recorder actually goes, by calculation based upon storage capacity, number of cameras and frames per second, never from a manual and never from what the installer recalls.

A preservation request is sentHow far back it really reaches
03

Both formats, every job

There are two exports made from the image. One plays everywhere: the MP4 format. The other keeps the manufacturer’s own format, typically .dav or a relation of it, and the software required to read that comes with it as well.

A playable copy and a native fileWith the player alongside
04

What accompanies the files

Three things come alongside each file leaving here: the SHA-256 value for the file, a written account detailing how it was created, and a dated list naming everyone who has handled it since its creation. Remove these items and what remains is a clip that somebody sent around. Leave them attached and an adjuster or a judge has something they can use.

SHA-256 on each, with the method noteHolds up in a claim or a hearing
05

You see the file list before you pay

You will see what has been recovered as a list first, after which a bill exists. Accepting the list means that a bill will be issued. Rejecting the list means that a bill will not be issued, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. The recovered data travels from here back to you via new media purchased specifically for your project, with the cost of postage paid by us. Your case is not resolved (i.e., "closed") until you personally view the files on a computer of your own.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the jobThe post home is ours

What the bench has learned

  • One email only, cost free, and the argument stops: give the date, identify the camera, provide a 30-minute window either side of the event, and write that you would like the footage retained. Afterwards, it cannot be said that you did not act quickly enough.
  • Blurring a face does not constitute obstruction: the shop owes that masking to its other customers under the same law used to get you a copy in the first place. Nothing you actually need vanishes inside the blur.
  • The same laws also apply to household cameras: in 2021 a county court ruled that a householder whose doorbell lens crossed over the pavement and into the neighbour’s garden had the same data protection obligations as a business.
  • Who reports to whom? Statutory codes relating to surveillance by listed public authorities primarily concern police forces and local councils. Retailers, landlords and yard operators fall within the ICO’s jurisdiction and data protection legislation, so what leaves this bench is built to satisfy that. On civil instructions the report meets the expert’s duty defined in CPR Part 35. Criminal instructions follow the 2025 Criminal Procedure Rules, together with a statutory Code expecting ISO/IEC 17025 for an examination like this one. That accreditation is not held here. Nor is there a UKAS schedule either. Page one of the report states as much, so nobody has to waste time looking for it. It is worth knowing too where the Code ends: criminal proceedings, England and Wales, and no further than that, which leaves insurance, employment, family and civil instructions outside the entire regime.

Why an insurer cares: November 2025 figures from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) stated that detected fraud on claims made during 2024 totalled £1.16 billion. This amount included motor insurance fraud at £576 million. There were 51,700 fraudulent motor claims detected. Documented video helps to settle a legitimate claim promptly, and to prevent an illegitimate claim from proceeding, provided it arrives as an exhibit and not as a forwarded copy.

One job, followed all the way through.

LDN · ADR-2026-3108JOB LOGGED ✓

Both vans on the clip the insurer wanted, and it was gone

A van suffered damage when attempting to manoeuvre in a distribution yard located on the Harold Hill estate along the A12, and the insurance company needed the moment on film. When the insurance company asked for the footage, the loop had cycled more than once and the day in question was lost off the disk. It had been outlived by the exported file. Someone had made a copy of the footage while it was still present on the unit, and they had since cleared that copy from an office PC several months after making it. The PC had reached our bench; we were able to recover that copy; both were hashed; the methodology was documented; and the claim was resolved without a judge being required.

The insurer's claim signed off and closedExhibit-marked copy handed over

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Email your hold today
  • Note the date and time, the video camera and the system owner
  • If you appear in the footage, make a subject access request
  • Hand all files on unchanged: do not rename them, do not trim anything

What sets us back

  • Waiting for the insurance company to enquire about it
  • Capturing a display image on a mobile phone and calling it evidence
  • Trimming a video clip before handing it over
  • Trusting what is shown in the menu concerning retention periods

The questions that come up first.

A shop filmed me. Can I have a copy?

Yes. Personal data of yours includes recordings where you are identifiable. The way to get such data is by means of a subject access request. The operator will have one calendar month in which to respond. Everyone else appearing in the same image is blurred beforehand, and usually no charge is made for copying the data.

They said no. What then?

Ask again politely and formally in writing, as many operators will hand over the data at that point. If the operator still refuses your request, there are only two official avenues remaining: complain to the data protection regulator, or apply to the court.

How long until the recorder overwrites it?

Earlier than most people would care to admit. Statute sets no period at all for retaining images. The one rule states that records should not be kept after the reason for collecting them has ceased. Therefore, you need to look to your equipment for the honest answer: how much can the disk hold? How many cameras are feeding data into it? What frame rate is being recorded? And what was configured when the device was first fitted?

What do I get at the end?

A file that works everywhere and stands up well when challenged. Four components make up one package: an MP4; a file created by the original recorder; a SHA-256 hash for each of these two files; and a signed document describing how they were generated.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

What is still on the recorder → A dashcam or a bodycam → What goes into the report → Work that reaches court →

Off the mains first, because that is what protects the evidence.

Regardless of what contains the evidence, turn off electrical power to it before doing anything else: a recorder still operating overwrites its oldest evidence every hour. Once power is removed, secure a price quotation (either by phone or through submitting a form), then post us just the disk or drive (do not include the recorder or computer), or drop it off at our Guildford intake lab, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm (no appointment needed). Evaluation costs nothing; work on recorders costs £400 + VAT and forensic analysis starts at £800 + VAT, both prices agreed to in writing beforehand. What sits on that disk stays here.

0203 0868633

Price my job Sending it to Guildford