The Daily Mail reports that Samuel Lees, 22, has been effectively banned from driving and fined £500 for splashing pedestrians in his car earlier this year. The mother who, with her children, he splashed is quoted:
I am very, very shocked by the punishment he has been given.
I don’t think that is fair at all. I think they must have wanted to make an example of him. But I think a slap on the wrist would have been sufficient.
Perhaps he could have gone on a driver awareness course, but what he has got from the court is really quite harsh. I would not wish that fine on anybody.
Whoa. Hold on a minute, here. Debbie Pugh – a “company director” – wasn’t quite so forgiving back in January. When the Daily Mail interviewed her at the time, she said:
The water went up over my shoulders, totally drenching me and the children – it was dirty, cold and it was disgusting. What he did was absolutely on purpose, there’s no doubt about it at all.
The driver could have avoided the puddle by going around it but he chose to speed through it and soak us all. I was fuming at the time.
My boy was in tears afterwards. The children were so wet I thought they might have to wear their PE kits when they arrived at school.
I saw the police were behind him when it happened but I did not initially realise they had stopped him.
When I came back from the school at about 9am there were blue lights flashing and they had pulled a car over and I realised it was him. At the time I was so angry – I am glad the police took action – people can’t go around driving like that.
You see, Ms Pugh, you got your wish. He no longer can go around driving like that. And this is one good reason why people like you shouldn’t be interviewed by newspapers and your opinions publicised. Your indignation could easily have influenced the outcome of the court’s decision, whereas your complete change of tune wouldn’t. Once upon a time, your ambivalent attitude might easily have resulted in someone innocent being executed. In this modern setting, Lees can no longer drive and may lose his job as a result.
Now, I am not commenting on the severity of the punishment. Lees deserves to be punished, and I don’t believe all his claims of innocence for one second. But again we have the problem of consistency in British Law. As the more recent report mentions, back in 2009 a woman, Kerry Callard, posted a Facebook video of herself splashing some kids at a bus stop. She can be heard squealing with glee as she does so. But police only “had a word with her”. Then, several years before that a guy from Somerset was fined £150 and given three points on his licence for wetting the trouser bottoms of a workman as he drove through a puddle at 10mph.
The offence of splashing pedestrian – certainly, the prosecution of it – is quite rare. But the few extant cases clearly show blatant sexual discrimination on the part of the authorities. Callard is by far the worst offender in this small sample – even videoing herself committing the crime on purpose – yet she got off completely. Someone who was taking genuine care through a puddle got points. Lees is somewhere in between those two – and got six points plus a £500 fine. As a new driver, six points is equal to a ban.
As I said recently, the Law is an ass.
Note that I have written about splashing pedestrians before.