Garden centre boss clung to bonnet of Range Rover, court hears
9:00am Tuesday 7th February 2012 in News
A motorist who sped away from a garden centre with the manager clinging on to the running board of his Range Rover has escaped a jail term.
Dean Lockwood, who had loaded his 4x4 with plants, drove away when the worker went to confront him about paying for the stock.
And victim Terry Wright had to make the terrifying decision to jump from the moving vehicle when he realised the driver wasn’t going to stop.
But after hearing the 44-year-old boss of a racehorse transport business had ‘double dosed’ on prescription painkillers a judge imposed a suspended sentence.
Marcus Davey, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how the drama unfolded at the Swindon Garden Centre in Kingsdown on Monday June 20 last year.
After seeing Lockwood load up the Range Rover and not paying Mr Wright banged on the rear window to try and get the driver’s attention.
He noticed the front passenger window was wound down a couple of inches and went to speak though it, but the vehicle started to move away with him moving alongside it.
Mr Wright then got on to the running board at the base of the door and shouted ‘You’ve got plants you haven’t paid for’, Mr Davey said.
Rather than respond to him, he said Lockwood accelerated ‘quite aggressively’ out of the car park with the man hanging on to the outside of the car.
Fearing he would be thrown under the wheels if he let go the store worker clung on to the open window.
Whilst holding on the passenger door swung open, Mr Wright didn’t see how, but he managed to maintain his grip and push it shut.
The vehicle swerved though the entrance gate without slowing, crossing the white lines on the road, and continued to drive away from the nursery.
After about 70 metres on the highway he said he looked in and saw the driver smirk at him and realised he was not going to stop so he would have to jump for it.
Mr Wright’s head cannoned off the tarmac and he suffered cuts and bruises to his back, shoulder and the rear of his skull, which bled heavily.
He estimated that the Range Rover had reached speeds of 25-30mph covering 50-60 metres in the car park and 70-100 metres on the road.
When Lockwood was questioned a few days later he said he had heard a bang at the back of his car and thought he had hit someone or something.
‘The next thing I knew I had this loony on the side of my car shouting,’ he told officers saying he feared the man was going to kill him.
Lockwood, of Ogbourne St George, pleaded guilty to a charge of dangerous driving. A charge of theft was dropped after medical evidence was served on the Crown.
Kevin Marland, defending, said his client suffered terrible pain as a result of his diabetes and had been prescribed amitriptyline and gabapentin.
On the day of the incident he had foolishly taken a double dose and as a result felt ‘out of sorts’.
He said he employed four people at his business transporting horses and the business would suffer if he was banned and almost certainly fail if he were jailed.
Mr Marland said: “He stands here today as a man who can’t believe that that incident occurred. He is ashamed and thoroughly remorseful for the injuries that that man received.”
Passing sentence Judge Euan Ambrose said: “Whatever part of the stick you had, right or wrong, it was totally wrong of you to continue driving with a man clinging to your vehicle.
“One can think of many ways you could have responded and not involved you driving down the public highway with a man clinging to your car.”
He imposed an eight month jail term suspended for two years and told him to do 300 hours of unpaid work and observe a night time curfew for six months.
Lockwood was also banned form the road for two years and until he has passed an extended test and was told to pay £1,500 compensation to Mr Wright.
