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Woman Fined After Being Caught Keying £50,000 Tesla By Car's Camera

Woman Fined After Being Caught Keying £50,000 Tesla By Car's Camera

Anna Valente used her keys to scratch the expensive motor during a shopping trip

A woman has been fined after being caught keying a Tesla by the car's very own camera system. You can see the incriminating footage below:

Anna Valente, from Poole, Dorset, got angry after seeing that the £50,000 ($67,000) motor had parked tightly next to her Nissan Juke outside a shop in a retail park on 20 June this year.

According to reports, it's thought that the 57-year-old had actually parked her car on the white bay line so as to put other people off pulling up next to her.

After returning from her shopping trip, rather than leave a stern note for the owner of the Tesla who had parked next to her, she pulled her car keys along its paintwork instead.

However, she didn't realise that it had onboard cameras, which capture everything going on outside the vehicle.

Anna Valente.
BNPS

Footage showed Valente standing with her back to the car and running her keys down the side of the Tesla, causing £1,000 worth of damage.

The owner of the car, who wished to stay anonymous, only spotted the four-inch scratch when his wife arrived home.

After asking her what had happened, she said she didn't have a clue.

He then had a look through the camera footage and saw Valente scratching his motor.

Police were able to track her down because one of the cameras on board captured her licence plate.

"When my wife arrived home and parked the car in the drive I saw the scratch on the passenger door and asked what had she done to the car?" said the owner.

The car's camera caught her scratching the paintwork.
BNPS

"She had no idea. I took the hard drive out of the Tesla and plugged it into a computer and downloaded all the video files.

"I felt a bit like a modern day Sherlock Holmes when I found the incriminating footage.

"I was stunned and amazed when I saw it. Miss Valente seemed very confident in the way that she did it.

"My wife was upset that somebody could do that to us but I was glad that I had identified the woman to the extent that I could catch them.

"Neither my wife or I know Miss Valente and have never spoken to her so I don't know why she did it.

"All I can think of is that she had parked her car right on the white line and she had a pet dog in the passenger seat so perhaps she didn't anyone parking next to her."

He added: "Police told us usually when people scratch cars it is almost impossible to get anything done. Car park cameras are normally positioned too far away. The system on the Tesla is great.

The damage.
BNPS

"I knew the car had something like this but I didn't know how good it was."

A spokesperson for Dorset Police said: "The vehicle involved had on-board CCTV, which provided clear and exceptional quality images capturing the defendant causing damage.

"The defendant was identified from the footage and subsequently was brought before the court to face the consequences for her actions."

At a hearing at the magistrate's court in Poole, Valente pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal damage.

She was handed a six month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £1,078.83 compensation.

Featured Image Credit: BNPS

Topics: Tesla, Technology, UK News