A driver with dashcam recorded a scene of bad driving in Batehaven on the morning of November 19 and sent a DVD of the incident to local police, who swung into action to find the culprit.

In Batemans Bay Local Court on January 19, Simon Karel Rudolf Kolarik, 38, of Melaleuca Crescent, Catalina, appeared before magistrate Mark Douglass to answer a charge of not giving way when moving from one marked lane to another.

Police facts said that a motorist following the two vehicles involved in the near-miss filmed what happened on his dashboard-mounted camera, and sent a copy of it to police.

The defendant, driving a Subaru Impreza, was travelling south on a double lane section of George Bass Drive, alongside another vehicle.

As the two vehicles approached where the road merged, the Subaru, in the left lane, accelerated, failed to give way, and forced the car in the right lane to take evasive action.

The driver braked and swerved his car to avoid a collision, crossed a traffic island and narrowly missed a raised concrete barrier.

The following day, on November 20, police officers went to the address of the Subaru’s owner.

The car’s owner, who was not driving the car at the time of the incident, identified the driver as Mr Kolaric.

He was living at her house while he recovered from injuries suffered in a previous car crash.

Mr Kolaric, who had a history of driving offences, was found guilty, convicted and ordered by Mr Douglass to pay a fine of $600.