Free app turns phone into dashcam and can report 21 driving offences to cops

A BRAND-NEW app which turns your phone into a dashcam can report different driving offences to the cops – and it will cost you nothing.

Handy app dashcamUK, which will launch in May, can capture 21 traffic violations from ignoring a red light to using your phone while driving.

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It may also be able to track speeding, The Times reports.

Those using the app while driving will not need to use their mobile phone behind the wheel.

To record a breach of road laws, all you need to do is touch the home screen.

And unless the user taps the screen, it automatically deletes footage after 30 seconds – a nifty trick to preserve your phone’s storage.

The app may be particularly useful as only around a quarter of the country’s 33 million drivers has a dashcam, it is estimated.

But almost everyone has a mobile phone – meaning the app has the potential to dramatically increase reports of road crime.

If motorists know they’re being watched, it might also deter them from any bad behaviour.

James Gibson, executive director of Road Safety GB, said: “If drivers believe that they’re being watched by others, we hope they will drive in the right way.”

DashcamUK’s creator Oleksiy Afonin, 46, said footage could be submitted to an official police video portal in under a minute.

It’s also far simpler than using a traditional dashcam, he explained – all you need is to tap the screen.

Ukrainian-born Afonin held meetings with the National Police Chiefs’ Council while he was designing the app.

As a result, it includes a number of recommended features to ensure the video evidence stands up to scrutiny in court.