A BMW driver has been jailed after he smiled and knocked down another motorist. Callum Wardle, 31, of Gibb Street, Long Eaton, was locked up for 12 months when he was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, March 25.
Judge Steven Coupland imposed a two-and-a-half year driving ban on Wardle after he pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Wardle drove at speed, knowing the man was in front of him, after he got out of his van, but he had not intended to injure him. He knocked him down and drove off.
The incident happened on March 14 last year at lunchtime when the victim, in a van as he works as a courier and with his son on-board, was driving over Clifton Bridge. The victim noticed the defendant's white BMW appearing behind his van and flashing his lights constantly and beeping his horn.
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"Clearly driving aggressively," said Dawn Pritchard, prosecuting. "And giving the appearance he wanted to get past." Wardle, who runs a marketing business, got so close the victim could not see in his mirrors.
Then he lost sight of the BMW and reached the junction of Farnborough Road, Clifton, and the A453 Clifton Lane, near Nottingham Trent University's Clifton campus. The BMW was again behind the victim, flashing the car's lights and beeping his horn. Wardle kept poking his head out and going back into lane as if he was trying to overtake.
By now the victim was so worried he decided to speed up. But then he panicked, as he was worried about his son in the van, whose age was not given in court. The man applied his brakes slowly to stop and speak to Wardle. This was to ask why he was being so aggressive and he thought there might be something wrong with his van.
"He got out an walked to the BMW," explained Miss Pritchard. "He put his hands up to say, 'what is your problem?'".
The defendant smiled and accelerated towards him at speed. The man was thrown over the car and landed on the kerb. Wardle drove off. The victim, who had a broken bone in his hand and elbow, was unable to work.
Wardle called 101 and gave a false account that he had been approached by a man with a hammer and thought he was being carjacked - but none of this was true.
A note found at Wardle's address was titled "alibi note" and seemed to suggest he had made notes about not proving intent. This was hidden in his coffee table, with Miss Pritchard telling the court: "He was clearly trying to cover his back when police attended after this incident".
Denney Lau, mitigating, said his client had always worked as an engineer and, in lockdown, he set up a marketing business. He said of the offence: "He had not gone out to cause trouble on this occasion and accepts he acted wrongly".
