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news
Justice (Lonpicman, Wikimedia Commons)"Too lenient" – 30 months in jail for driver who used car as weapon against cyclist
A driver who “used his car as a weapon” against a cyclist, leaving him on a life support machine, has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for causing serious injury by dangerous driving – but was acquitted of GBH with intent at his trial last month.
Abdool Choonka, aged 70, was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court last Wednesday, with Judge Anne Brown also handing down a concurrent three-month sentence for criminal damage as well as banning him for driving for four years and three months, reports the London Evening Standard.
The victim, 61-year-old Craig Perrott, said in a victim impact statement issued jointly with his partner Joyce Harvie that the sentence was “too lenient” and that he had experienced suicidal thoughts since the incident, which happened in Tooting on 14 June last year.
Mr Perrott had been riding along Stapleton Road when Choonka pulled out of a junction in his Lexus 4x4, almost hitting him. The cyclist, who had got off his bike, remonstrated with Choonka then driving at him and pinning him against a parked car before making off.
Later, Choonka returned to the scene where he took photographs of Mr Perrott, who was seriously injured, but he did not call for an ambulance. He also claimed during his trial that he had no idea how the car had moved forward.
Mr Perrott, who was a care worker, underwent two operations at St George’s Hospital in Tooting and was later transferred to St Thomas’s Hospital in Lambeth where he spent six days on a life support machine.
In all, he spent three months in hospital, and his injuries were so severe that he needed four titanium ribs and a titanium pelvis. He suffers from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder as well as chronic pain, and is unable to work.
In their victim impact statement he and Ms Harvie, who has given her work in the City to care for him full-time, said: “We believe the sentence to be too lenient and [that it] does not fit the crime.
“Craig is unable, and will never be able, to do what he could do before Mr Choonka used his car as a ‘weapon’ to assault him, after he had narrowly missed him the first time.”
Mr Perrott said: “It feels like it’s ruined my life. More than once it’s made me want to end my life … It was an act of needless aggression.”
Ms Harvie added: “What continues to cause huge and unnecessary stress is the defendant’s refusal to take responsibility.
“Our lives now consist of trying to put a broken man back together on a daily basis.”
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- chrisonabike 3 sec ago
Oh come on! Still 37 days (many of them working) to go - that's just anti-social!...
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Awaiting the next feckless driver asking the judge to delay the start of the sentence because "they owe a few more cyclists a proper goodbye"....
- Hirsute 2 hours 49 min ago
All in the article - road tax.
- chrisonabike 4 hours 3 min ago
Ah, but: in UK, if a motorist drives into you (or simply parks in a cycle lane, forcing you out into the path of another motorist) then the council...
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24 comments
https://road.cc/content/news/267603-terrorist-who-drove-cyclists-and-police-parliament-square-jailed-life
Ok, it was only charged as terrorism, but honestly I think you'd have to go a long way to find someone who wouldn't think it was terrorism.
Compare and contrast with the life sentence for the driver who rode into a group of cyclists outside Parliament before going on to crash into a barrier. IIRC, no significant injuries (luckily), but two Police officers on duty were nearly injured. Coincidence ?
Don't be obtuse, that was terrorism, which is always going to be treated differently.
I thought that they didn't actually know why did it.
But it was * treated* as terrorism. For all we (and the authorities) actually know, he did it because he didn't like Mondays.
So, as jem says, not that different.
Sadly this is why you should always consider where and when to potentially confront people. Guys like Legs11 talk a good game about what they'd do to drivers but the reality is if the driver stays in the car then you're going to lose.
30 months for deliberately pinning a cyclist against another vehicle with a car, leaving them with life changing injuries...... 9 years for a car driver mounting a pavement and running down a pedestrian and leaving them with life changing injuries
https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/chester-cheshire-news/chester-drive...
Can someone familiar with Twitter link this story to the one about Talksport and Andy Goldshite? Would love to know what he thinks about this.
In my experience, there are very few cases of cyclists deliberately riding at people trying to hurt them.
The legal system needs shaking up, I there just is no protection for cyclists before these events happen, and bugger all recourse for them after they happen.
He got 4 years and 5 months (the article was not laid out very well).
Pathetic given the previous crimes and he was already banned and under a suspended sentence.
I have to say, the news section of Road.cc is the worst possible tourism campaign for cyclists who might be considering a holiday in Britain.
As a cyclist in Britain I would recommend against a cycling holiday here unless you're going to be a long way from any roads.
How about this one, https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/face-criminal-who...
This case is arguably worse.
"During the escape Devshi clipped a parked car in Smith Dorrien Road and crashed into a 42-year-old father of two, who was cycling to morning prayers.
The victim suffered an open fracture to his leg, multiple fractures to his back and a dislocated hip.
He said the injuries have ruined his life and left him feeling "like a dead man",....
Devshi admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, having no insurance, failing to stop after an accident, driving when disqualified and attempted burglary.
The collision happened just five months after Devshi received a 15 month suspended jail sentence and was banned from the road for three years, for dangerous driving during a police pursuit, in July last year.
The court heard he had 33 previous offences to his name, including motoring offences, burglary and handling stolen goods.
Mr Varley said the victim underwent surgery and was in hospital for six weeks. He is currently unable to walk - and the prognosis was uncertain."
The reports don't make clear whether Devshi received a custodial sentence, but the judge does mention what will happen when he gets out of jail, so he must have got something, possibly the 15 month suspended sentence was activated. The reports do say that he was banned for 5 years and a month.
And in other news, car thief who runs over PC gets 12 years for GBH. This is a fair sentence - a bit of equality would be nice!
A serious injustice and imbalance with regards to other crimes of the same nature, can there be no appeal against this leniency?
it's truly sickening, scary that you or I could be on the end of the same and a jury + judge not put these animals away for a long time. Seriously hope this individual meets the karma they deseve and some.
I think I know what this sentence means, but... Subs! Subs!!
I would very much like to have been a fly on the wall in that jury room. He drives at someone, seriously injuring them, returns to take pictures, doesn't call emergency services but it wasn't GBH?
In any other attack with a deadly weapon, gun, knife etc, the defence would just plead guilty and go for mitigation, but use a car, with other aggravating factors, and it isn't GBH?
According to sentencing council guidelines:
"Category 2 Greater harm (serious injury must normally be present) and lower culpability; or lesser harm and higher culpability
Category 2 - 6 years’ custody 5 – 9 years’ custody"
https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/offences/crown-court/item/causing-g...
But it's a car so it isn't GBH. I can't wait for the government review of road laws, which, as someone recently informed us, was announced in 2014. I don't recall it being in the Queen's speech yesterday though. I'm sure some talksport host will be telling us that the cyclist deserved it.
Even so, serious injury by dangerous driving carries a maximum penalty of 5 years in prison. Why did the judge give only half? And why a concurrent term for the other criminal damage - effectively no penalty at all?
Inattentive driving, road rage, using car as weapon because, y'know, someone on a bicycle is a (literally) soft target, life-changing injuries, drives off, comes back to take photos (presumably for insurance claim) and drives off again. Failure to stop, failure to report, failure to get help. Then denies he did anything wrong - "it was the car wot did it m'lud" - and shows bugger all remorse. The penalty for all this effing craziness? A short prison sentence -15 months or less inside - and a 51 month ban!
Sigh. Death/injury by driving is so normal, so commonplace, it's become normalised. Seen by the man in the street as 'one of those things'. What you going do, eh? Gotta get to the shops.....
One really has to wonder about fairness of jury trials in incidents like this involving cyclists. I note there's a civil claim in progress.
I find it surprising in cases like this one. I can imagine a juror in a careless driving case thinking there but for the grace of god... When a driver makes a mistake, even an egregiously stupid one, I think most drivers would feel a certain amount of sympathy.
But surely that doesn't apply here, where someone is accused of deliberately driving at someone. I am 100% certain that I will never deliberately drive at someone, and surely the vast majority of people would be the same?
I'd hope so. Never can tell, nowadays...
But that sympathy is often misplaced. The fairly recent case of the van driver who ran over (twice!) and killed a little girl on her scooter on the pavement is a good example of a jury identifying with a driver ("we all park on the pavement, don't we, it's not wrong, where else can we park, it's so convenient") and letting him off with barely a slap on the wrist. Shit, 50 people are run down and killed by drivers on pavements every year. It's not okay!
No, it doesn't apply here. The driver showed zero humanity. What the hell were the jury thinking? See first para above for answer.
What would you get for using a weapon as a weapon, as opposed to using a car as a weapon? More than 3 yrs I imagine.