Insurance claims · evidence work from Plymouth
A loss adjuster is not checking your integrity. The question being asked is whether the file before them is truly what it says it is, and this is determined by the recorder's own export, hash values taken on it, and documentation of how it was removed from the disk. Claims work is civil in nature, so the statutory Code of the Forensic Science Regulator (which covers criminal prosecutions in England and Wales) does not govern it. We also record whatever would not read.
A quiet word first?
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| The claim | What reaches the bench | What it can show |
|---|---|---|
| Theft, or a forced entry | The recorder unit itself (or the disk from a failed one) | The period around it, exported in the format the box wrote it |
| A machine caught by fire or water | The disk from a burned-out or water-damaged office tower | Schedules, invoices and photographs still held on it |
| A vehicle or a fleet claim | The dashcam's own card, not a clip passed on | The camera's whole data file (including the GPS, speed and sensor channels) which a forwarded MP4 would throw away, along with a note detailing what the shared copy is missing |
| A business proving what it lost | The disk those records sat on | A hashed list of everything still readable, and a plain account of what the disk cannot tell anybody any more |
| Liability being argued over | A recorder each side believes supports its own version | One set of exports issued the same to both, with a method plain enough for either to recreate it |
Call us and tell us as much or as little as you like. The call costs nothing. It needs to establish what the matter is: what happened, which devices and accounts are involved, and what question the evidence has to answer. That defines the scope. One written figure follows from it, and you get that before anything is opened.
Left powered, a recorder keeps writing, and its oldest content is overwritten by newer content. Claims move much more slowly than this cycle. You cannot find the time remaining in a manual either, because it depends on disk size, channel count, resolution and how the box was set up. Turn the recorder off first, then ring us.
Unauthorised access to a computer is an offence under section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Therefore every job includes a note of who authorised it and on what footing. Landlords, employers and owners of vans do not hold equal positions.
Two files are returned to you. The first is the native export from the recorder, along with whatever player opens it; the second will work on any machine. The conversion between these formats is recorded, not buried within a viewer. Each file has MD5 and SHA-256 taken on it, and the difference between the recorder's clock and a reference time is documented in the report.
Anything the other side can't check is something to argue over. So we put together a bundle that can be checked: exhibit references, the images each finding was read from, every handover with its date, hash values, and the notes made during the examination. Their own examiner can repeat the work and reach the same result.
Important to know before you instruct anyone: version 2 of the Regulator's statutory Code applies from 2 October 2025. It names ISO/IEC 17025 as the standard for obtaining data from digital storage and for recovering CCTV footage, where that is done for a criminal prosecution in England and Wales. None of this describes a claim under a policy. We do not hold any accreditation of any kind, and that statement opens every report we prepare.
A haulier and a food supplier were unable to agree on the date a pallet was damaged. The only record of the incident was on the yard gate recorder. Its clock had never been adjusted for BST. We measured the offset, exported the native data, and included both figures in our report. The claim settled after exchange.
No. ISO/IEC 17025 is the standard set by the Regulator's Code for this work where it is done in support of a criminal prosecution in England and Wales. A claim is a civil matter and therefore falls outside that requirement. We do not hold any accreditation, and regardless, page one of every report we produce says so. If a claim later turns into a criminal case, we will write and tell you the ground has shifted.
Because it has gone round a monitor, through a phone lens, and been encoded again. Neither the timing nor the data recorded by the box survives this journey. What an insurer wants to see is material produced by the box itself, with a hash on it.
We can identify what remains readable, and report what the disk itself records about the rest. When something has been overwritten, that is exactly what our report will state. There is no guessing.
Someone who is entitled to give it. The Computer Misuse Act 1990 (section 1) makes unauthorised access to a computer an offence, so the basis for the job is documented every time. A landlord, an employer and the owner of a van do not all stand equally. Neither does a driver.
Insurers' timelines rarely change, so the sooner the evidence is imaged and documented, the more of it survives the deadline. Begin here. The first look is free, and what you tell us goes no further.