Category - ADI

This story makes you wonder how this guy will behave if – God forbid – he were ever to gain a driving licence.

At 37, Alexssandro Osti is far from being young – at least physically – but he sure could be considered extremely immature. The idiot was spotted not wearing a seatbelt, and when police tried to stop him he raced off at speeds of around 60mph. He drove on the wrong side of roads, narrowly missed colliding with another vehicle, appears to have cornered on only two wheels, and then crashed into a wall. He was unaccompanied and had no licence.

In a continuation of the comedy act which passes for The Law in England, Osti was given 200 hours of unpaid community service, some sort of course, banned for 2 years, and ordered to take an extended test. He should have been imprisoned and banned for life – and deported. Mitigation said he was “a man of previous good character” – so good, in fact, that he had obviously been driving around for an unspecified period of time without a licence, probably without a seatbelt, and also probably no supervising driver. Yes, a man of excellent character.

Compare that with this Scottish case, where Pauline Medhurst, an ex-driving instructor, was found slumped behind the wheel of her car and discovered to be four times the legal drink-drive limit. She tried the usual trick – post-natal depression – and although it prevented a custodial sentence (Scotland is still too close to England to be entirely free of stupidity in its laws), she was slapped with a two-year community payback order, 300 hours of community service, and banned for 40 months.

By my reckoning, her sentence was approximately twice as stiff as Osti’s.

I wrote recently about the problem of elderly drivers. This in itself was simply a development of the Cassie McCord tragedy, where an elderly driver who simply should not have been on the road killed a 16-year old girl. In the footnote to that particular story, I linked to three further stories where elderly drivers had killed or maimed innocent people.

Well, this story just came in on the newsfeeds. It tells how Cyril Titcombe, 82, did a U-turn on the M4 and collided head on with another driver as he drove the wrong way. Both he and the innocent other driver were killed. The story suggests that Titcombe had been having problems with his memory.

As I said in several previous posts on this subject, something has got to be done about these elderly idiots who lie about their health to keep their licences and put everyone else’s lives at risk.

You couldn’t make it up! Another story tells how Norah Nicole Rimmer, 19, stole a car, failed to stop or report an accident, had no insurance, and committed an undisclosed offence relating to her driving licence. She was aided by Holly Louise Smith, 20.

Rimmer got an 18-week suspended prison sentence, a curfew, and banned for a year. Smith, the passenger, was also banned for a year and received a 6-month community order. They have also been ordered to have no contact with each other.

If you read the report, the defence lawyer’s attempts at mitigation are something of an understatement:

Fiona Larking, for Rimmer, said her client had mental health problems. That night she had got into a situation she did not want to be in and decided to leave the house. The party she had been invited to only involved four people. She became anxious and took the car keys. Her client had led a traumatic and chaotic life and was ‘an extremely troubled young lady’. Smith was the passenger in the car, she went to the party but did not remember leaving. She was very intoxicated.

There’s no mention of drink-driving in the list of things she was found guilty of.

If she has mental health problems the last thing she should ever be allowed to do is get in a car as the driver. She should be kept away from them permanently.

This one from Scotland. Liam Donaldson was 16 when he stole the car of a “family friend” after boozing with pals.

He lost control in Aberdeen during the early hours, hit a lamp post, went through a garden wall, and smashed into the property of a couple of OAPs. The car stopped next to their bed, in which they were sleeping at the time.

Donaldson did a runner and was tracked down by his DNA on the airbag (so the police must have had him on record already). The list of charges includes:

• stealing a car
• driving without a licence
• driving without insurance
• injuring Mrs Gordon (one of the OAPs)
• damaging property by dangerous driving
• drink-driving

[The Sheriff] told Donaldson: “This is absolutely appalling. I take it you understand that you face a possible prison sentence.”

The scumbag has been bailed until January and banned from driving until sentenced.

Update: Scumbag Donaldson avoided jail.

Sheriff William Summers said it was “frankly astonishing” no one had been more seriously injured.

But he said he could see reasons not to sentence the first offender to detention.

He placed him under an 18-month supervision order and ordered him to carry out a total of 260 hours of unpaid work as a direct alternative to custody.

The Scottish legal system isn’t as good as previous cases had led me to believe.

I wonder if the ADIs out there who think they’re life coaches could do anything about this little scumbag.

Obviously not the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree, Christopher Wade was clocked doing 85mph by the police, who pulled him over. Since he only has a provisional licence, he lied to police and told them he was his younger brother. When the caution arrived in the post, his mother informed them that they’d got the wrong driver.

It turned out that Wade is already on a suspended sentence for perverting the course of justice in March this year.

David Forrester, defending, said: “He has a legitimate provisional licence and is taking his test very soon.

“He normally gets a lift to work, but on this occasion the person who takes him cried off.

“He was desperate and was going to be late so took the car.”

Aaaah. Bless. That makes it all right, then.

The court has yet to decide if it will take action on the suspended sentence.

People like this shouldn’t be on the streets, let alone the roads. No one can change them.