Picture this… Your home’s been raided. You’ve been arrested. All your vehicles have been defected. Plus you’re staring down the barrel of heavy-handed Police officers trying to charge you with 11 different road offences. Not to mention, nearly $30,000 in fines. Sounds like a nightmare, right? Sadly, it was reality for Queensland based 4X4 content creator Sam Eyles.
The recent raids, investigation and charges laid on 4X4 YouTuber Sam Eyles, is one of the most controversial things to happen in our industry for years. A seemingly revenge-inspired attack from Queensland Police has led to a great divide in the 4X4 community. It’s got people all around the country picking sides!
Some media outlets have labelled the targeting as justified. The rest of the 4X4 community is sitting here wondering if what’s gone down is even remotely ethical. Let’s talk about it.
Tension has been growing
Over the last decade, the tension between Queensland Police and car-enthusiasts has been growing at an exponential rate. With racetracks getting shut down, car meets being outlawed and vehicle modification laws constantly getting tightened, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise when the public start pushing back.
What happened with Sam and Sid?
Now, if you haven’t heard of Queensland based 4X4 YouTuber ‘Sam Eyles’ then chances are you’ve been living under a rock. Not only is he a good mate of mine, but one of the top 4X4 content creators in Australia. With his YouTube channel ‘Built Not Bought’ he’s not just pushing the limits of 4X4 builds. He’s also entertaining and educating millions of people around the world.
Sadly, earlier this year, Sam Eyles took his recently purchased ‘clown car’, affectionally named ‘Sid’, for a test-drive through town. The purpose was to test what it could do and to produce a YouTube video revealing the latest addition to his fleet. The car was an old member of a travelling circus and hadn’t been registered for pretty much it’s entire life! He was pulled over by a pair of general duties Queensland Police officers who proceeded to warn him about it being unroadworthy. However, eventually they let Sam driver away in the unregistered vehicle.
The encounter with police was filmed for YouTube and various other social media channels and eventually was posted. This is where it quickly caught the eye of law enforcement. Queensland police asked to have it removed as it showed the police officers letting Sam drive the unregistered vehicle away after being pulled over. The footage wasn’t removed. Sid continued to be filmed doing heinous stunts, some resulting in it running off the road and down embankments, albeit on public roads. Whilst this was a deserted and controlled dead-end street, it seems Queensland Police had a keen eye for the location and stunts happening.
Home raided and charged laid on
Fast forward 8 months, there’s been a seemingly ‘revenge-inspired’ investigation opened into the Built Not Bought channel and Sam Eyles personally. On September 30th, Sam’s house was raided by heavy handed Police officers. They seized every form of media they could including computers, phones, cameras, hard drives and even vehicles. They defected all the vehicles on Sam’s private property and charged him with 11 separate offences. These included dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.
Whilst we don’t condone unregistered driving, we’re also not afraid of a little bit of harmless fun if done safely. In this case, I believe Sam’s antics with Sid were. The Queensland Police annual report states that their vision includes “delivering safe and secure communities through best practice.” Their purpose is published as “build relationships with the community.” My question to you folks at home is, does raiding a young Australian’s home over traffic related offences seem like ‘best practice’? Because it certainly doesn’t look like it’s helped build a relationship with the community!
Some of the charges include:
- Two counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle
- Two counts of careless driving, drive defective vehicle (major defect unsafe)
- Two counts of drive with passenger unrestrained, drive unrestrained, and passenger fail to wear seat belt.
Under Queensland’s strict laws, hoon related offences like those above can entail over $5,000 in fines per offence and/or up to 6 months imprisonment.
With a date with a magistrate at Maroochydore courthouse looming in just a few days, 12th Dec 2022, I personally wish Sam and the Built Not Bought family all the best!
I don’t care if he’s making content for his YouTube channel, he has to abide by the same laws as the rest of us! If it’s not registered & not roadworthy then it has no place on our public roads. If you wanna make content for your channel in an unroadworthy, unregistered vehicle then stick to private property. It’s all fun & games until something goes wrong & he does damage, injures someone else or kills someone! I have no sympathy for him whatsoever.
It’s a tough call. Absolutely the QPS has been overzealous in targeting the 4wd and car enthusiasts in every way possible. Pretty much anything with anodised parts underneath or with a lift and 33’s or bigger gets pulled over. Was Sam endangering lives? None other than maybe his own to a small degree. Was he a risk to other vehicles? Barely, just maybe his trip into town.
Should he have pulled his YouTube clip of cops letting him off? ABSOLUTELY! He put them into a bad position, they were left open to disciplinary action and sets a precedent that the QPS doesn’t and shouldn’t want being public.
What does that mean for everyone else?
No more discretionary warnings and being let off with anything to do with 4wd and trail bikes etc. They probably feel letting anyone off leaves them further open to getting a smacked bum for being nice guys.
Was it heavy handed?
Oh yeah, it sure was but they did ask nicely to take it down.
4WD punters are pretty fickle, the flack you see 4wd shows cop if they do a recovery without a winch blanket or cut a corner in any way and the uproar if they accidentally drive a closed track is huge even when it’s in no way deliberate.
Has Australia become a nanny state, you betcha.
I look at Sam antic as just that, did he sell cocaine or drug to school kids, no but he did break the law yes and would have probably got off if he pulled the footage when asked or not posed it. Most likely.
Been plastered all over mainstream media ? Well that’s was probably a bit far, but his answer at the court house was gold. As he case was a waste of time compared to the stolen vehicle issues in qld or violence issues etc.
Outcome he should have to pay the fine and be part of a good will campaign to educate people as that would be a greater benefit than anything else.
After 2 years of ‘police state’ tactics australia wide by our thugs in blue nobody should be surprised by this raid on private property.
There was a time when this was reserved for drug dealers, murderers and the like, alas, no more, do something silly on utube or disagree
with ‘police state’ heavy handiness and you may well find yourself being treated to the sort of hospitality fit for a drug kingpin.