NDR / Claims, court and footage / CCTV footage for claims and disputes

Evidence work · video that holds up when somebody argues with it

CCTV evidence for claims, Nottingham. Anyone can pull the clip off; making it survive a challenge is the job.

Write the hold request now, before the loop reaches the half hour you care about; it costs nothing and only you can make it. Whoever receives your video (an assessor at an insurer or a person employed by Nottinghamshire Police) has to be able to confirm it is genuine and that it originated from that recorder, and that is settled at the box, not weeks later at a desk. The rights you have under data protection legislation over footage which you appear in are exercised when you ask for a copy of that footage. Once files leave here they are hashed and accompanied by a dated audit trail, showing who has had them and how they were created. The recovery fee for the footage itself is £400 + VAT, but that is small compared to the value the documentation gives the footage. If the system is owned by a third party, then you will need to obtain their permission beforehand.

Only pay if we recover your data, on most jobs Treated as an exhibit from the moment it lands Every hour, the loop writes over more of it

An engineer will talk it through with you, in confidence
0115 8220606

What actually gets a copy released.

Going by subject accessUnder UK GDPR, an operator has a legal obligation to provide a copy of any footage that identifies you. Generally, most replies will arrive within one calendar month. The time limit may be extended by up to two further months if the request is complex, or because a number of requests are being made at the same time. The others who appear in the same frame as you will be blurred before a copy is released. A charge will normally only be made in exceptional circumstances.

Get the hold down in writingAn email sent on the same day will usually beat a solicitor's letter sent two weeks later. It is essential that you clearly state which camera it is and which half-hour period. In addition, ask the operator in writing to keep the footage.

If an officer asks for itAn officer makes an informal request, the operator agrees, and the majority of the video footage that ends up in a Nottinghamshire Police investigation is delivered through this route. If the operator declines, then the formal route is used: a data protection request first, and after that an application to the court.

What the bench can doA disk that was formatted accidentally. A recorder that stopped recording at some point before the evening it was needed. An exported file deleted from an office PC. These are typical examples of things that can be recovered in most cases. The cost is £400 + VAT, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. Anything the loop has already covered cannot be recovered by anyone.

Time, and the law that sits round it.

Something else? Say what it does →

What it depends on	What usually causes it	What that means for you
Retention: the common myth	There is no law that sets one. It is simple arithmetic: disk capacity, number of cameras, frame rate	Ask for it to be kept, today
A calendar month for the reply	The month starts when your request reaches the operator, not when it is read	Send the request in writing
Everyone else gets blurred	Recognisable faces get blurred before any copy is released	Something they owe, not a get-out
A doorbell camera aimed at a drive	Point a household camera beyond your own property and the same obligations apply	Home cameras are inside this too
Custody, written down	Every stage is logged: from the disk while it is still in the recorder to the copy we post back to you	Each file carries its SHA-256 hash value and a signed method statement

Getting it here: first of all you need to get a quote, either by phone (0115 8220606) or through the online form. Once you have your quote, send it to our intake lab by tracked, insured post: Manchester Data Recovery, Peter House, Oxford Street, Manchester M1 5AN. Alternatively, you can drop it in there Monday to Friday, 9am to 5:30pm, without booking an appointment. Postage to return your data once recovered is paid for by us. If you are unsure what should go in the box and what should stay at home, contact us before sealing it and one of our engineers will walk you through exactly what needs to be sent and what can be left behind. All other details on packing and postage can be found in our packing and postage guide.

The order we work in.

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Booked in the day it arrives, and the first look is on us Free

Your case number is assigned when the item is received. Then an engineer works out what went wrong (no charge). At this point, you receive a basic summary of which parts are recoverable and which are not. You also receive a single written quote for the price of the recovery. Accept the quoted price or turn it down, and there is no obligation to pay anything.

The first look is freeOne fixed figure, in writingNo charge at this point

Stop it being overwritten first

The written hold goes to the system operator, and if the system is owned by someone else, the owner's consent goes along with it. After that, you have to determine as accurately as possible how far back the recording device actually goes. Use all of the information available (disk space, number of cameras and frame rates) to do so instead of relying on an instruction manual or what the installer recalls.

A preservation request goes outHow far back it truly goes

Both formats, on every job

When we export files from an image, one will be a video in MP4 format, a file type anyone can play. In addition, we export the original format in which it was recorded by the manufacturer (e.g., .dav), along with the software required to view it.

One playable copy, one native fileThe player supplied alongside

What goes out alongside the files

Every file we export includes three additional attachments: the SHA-256 hash of the file, an account of how the file was generated, and a dated listing of everyone who has had possession of the file. Remove these three attachments and you have a "clip" some person sent around. Add back these three attachments and you now have evidence a loss adjuster or judge can use.

SHA-256 on both, plus the method noteStands up to a claim or a hearing

The file list comes before the bill

A complete file list will be provided before any invoicing. Simply say "yes" or "no" to what we found: yes means it is billed, no means it is not, and in most cases you only pay if we recover your data. What we find is posted to you on media purchased specifically for your case, at no additional cost to you. We consider the process complete once you have opened those files yourself on your own computer.

Nothing is charged until you agree the figureNew media, bought in for your jobWe pay to send it home

What turns up on recorder disks

One email, costing nothing, and the argument is over: write down the date, the camera and 30 minutes either side of the incident, and ask in writing for the footage to be preserved. Afterwards, nobody can claim you left it too late.
A blurred face is not obstruction: when a shop masks its other customers before replying, it is meeting a duty it owes them under the same law that got you the copy. Everything you actually need stays visible even when they are obscured.
Household cameras are covered too: in 2021, a county court ruled that a householder whose driveway and shed cameras recorded a neighbour's shared access road, car park and garden (the doorbell camera only captured the street) had the same data-protection obligations as a business.
Who is bound by what: the surveillance camera code applies to "relevant authorities", in practice forces and councils. Shopkeepers, landlords and yard operators have obligations to the ICO instead, under data-protection law, and every export from this bench is designed to meet them. Civil reports are written to the expert's duty under CPR Part 35. Criminal work falls under the Criminal Procedure Rules 2025, alongside a statutory Code that expects ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for this kind of examination. We do not hold it. Nor do we hold any UKAS accreditation. That is stated on page 1 of the report, so nobody has to go looking for it. It is also worth noting that the Code does not extend past criminal proceedings in England and Wales, so civil, family, employment and insurance instructions fall outside it altogether.

Why should an insurer care? On the ABI's November 2025 figures, detected fraud across 2024 claims came to £1.16 billion, of which motor accounted for £576 million over 51,700 cases. Good video settles an honest claim quickly and stops a dishonest one being paid, provided it arrives documented rather than simply forwarded.

One of these, from start to finish.

NG · NTG-2026-1708ON THE LOG ✓

The insurer wanted footage of both vans, and the clip was gone

A van was damaged while manoeuvring in a distribution yard on Manton Wood, Worksop, and the insurer asked to see the incident. By the time anyone asked, the loop had gone round more than once and that date was no longer on the disk. A copy of the footage had outlasted it, though. It had been exported off the box while the footage was still there, then cleared off an office PC a few months later. The PC was sent to us, the copy came back, each item was hashed and the method written down, and the claim was settled without anyone needing to go to court.

The insurance claim brought to a closeExhibit-numbered export supplied

What helps, and what does damage.

Worth doing first

Send the hold request by email today
Write down the date, time, camera and owner of the system
If you appear in the picture, make a subject access request
Pass files on in their original form: no renaming, no trimming

What makes it harder

Waiting until the insurer asks
Filming the monitor on a phone and claiming that as evidence
Trimming the clip before handing it on
Believing whatever retention figure the menu displays

What gets asked before posting.

A shop has me on camera. Can I get a copy?

Yes. If you can be identified in the picture, the recording is personal data about you, so you have the right to ask for it with a subject access request. Whoever controls the system has one calendar month to respond. Everyone else in shot is blurred first, and normally there is no charge.

They have refused. What now?

Ask them again, politely and in writing. A good number of operators simply hand it over at that point. Where the refusal holds, two formal options remain: complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), or apply to the court.

How long before the recorder covers it?

Sooner than most owners will admit. There is no statutory period. The only rule is that footage should not be kept longer than the purpose for taking it requires, which puts the honest answer back on the equipment: how big is the disk? How many cameras feed into it? What frame rates were chosen? And what settings did someone pick on installation day?

What do I actually end up with?

A file that can be opened anywhere and stands up to a challenge. Four things go together: an MP4 file; the recorder's own native file; a SHA-256 hash value for each; and a signed account of how the two copies were made.

Start here if the same thing is happening to yours.

What the recorder still holds → Dashcam or bodycam clips → What the report contains → Jobs that end up in court →

Power the recorder down before the loop reaches your clip.

Remove power from the DVR before you do anything else: as long as it is powered, it keeps writing, and the oldest footage goes first. Then get a quote and post the disk in. The first look is free. CCTV and DVR work is £400 + VAT, quoted in writing before any work starts, and anything recovered from the disk goes no further than our bench.

0115 8220606

Get my quote Posting it to Manchester

Disks, cards and whole machines

Start with what it is doing

Footage, forensics and reports

The price, and what happens next