By Kirsty Topping
Les Hicks insists he was not driving the vehicle in the footage
A YOUNG DJ was horrified after a video he produced to test his editing skills sparked a police probe.
Les Hinks said he found a video of a car speeding through Edinburgh streets on the internet and enhanced it and intercut it with footage of a high-powered Ford Focus RS.
He then posted it on YouTube, where it received thousands of views – but also led to him being condemned on motoring websites.
The 22-year-old insists he was not the driver and says he did not know who had shot the footage.
He said:
“It’s absolutely baffling what has happened. I didn’t think for a second the police would get involved.
‘I have no idea who the driver was and how long ago it was filmed.
“When I found it my TV brain kicked in and I just wanted to see what I could do with it, to make it an exciting film.
“It’s a popular kind of film online, where a car is driven around a city with a camera low to the ground, often speeded up.
“I posted it on Sunday but got home from work and realized it might have been a bad idea, so I took it down. I just can’t believe that posting something online would lead to this.
Mr Hinks, a Napier University graduate, says he did not know where the video originated but would be helping police.
The video features a car speeding along a two mile journey towards Edinburgh Castle in just minutes.
In the footage, shot around dawn, the car careers onto the wrong side of the road several times.
It runs red lights outside Stewart’s Melville College, drives the wrong way round a traffic island before performing a handbrake turn.
Mr Hinks, a former Stewart’s Melville College pupil, said he had speeded up the footage and enhanced the lighting. Although he included the 27,000 Ford Focus RS, he said he did not know the actual make of the car in the film.
On the RS Owners Club website, one member said:
“Great vid, don’t want to ruin the mood by pointing out the number of driving offences in it though. “
One user on PistonHeads.com said they had reported Me Hinks to the police.
Mr Hinks added:
“A couple of my pals died in a car accident and I think that kind of driving is just madness.
A police spokesperson said they were continuing to investigate the footage.
