Driver, 31, who ploughed into a crowd outside a pub in a drunken rage after being kicked out is jailed for three years
- Gavin Chesterman, 31, was jailed for using his Vauxhall Astra as a battering ram
- The raging driver drove his car into a pub after he was thrown out
A raging driver who ploughed his car into a crowd of revellers standing outside a pub after being thrown out has been jailed for three years.
Gavin Chesterman, 31, deliberately drove his Vauxhall Astra at the Royal Oak in Pontypool last month, using his car as a weapon before he was tackled by customers as he sat in the wreckage.
Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard that Chesterman had intended to hit Luke Palmer, who jumped out of the way, but instead struck Lauren Bull who was forced under the front of the car which collided in to railings.
Prosecutors said that the reason Chesterman had aimed for Mr Palmer was because the two had come to blows during a row earlier in the night.
Chesterman has now been jailed for 40 months and banned from driving for five years.
Gavin Chesterman, 31, was jailed for three years for the violent act of road rage
Chesterman was also banned from driving for five years
Prosecutor Jason Howells: ‘The defendant accelerated forwards towards the pub driving through the railings that separate the beer garden from the street.
‘The 10 or 12 people present who had been talking scattered.
‘As it struck the railings, the car also struck Lauren Bull who had been standing on the pavement facing the pub and with her back to the defendant.
‘She was forced under the front of the car.’
Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard she was taken to hospital but was not seriously injured.
Mr Howells said: ‘The defendant was still revving the engine and a witness got the impression that he was trying to move the car.
‘Others then smashed the passenger window to get at the keys.
‘There was a brief scuffle with those around the defendant before he ran off.’
This is the moment a car crashed into the front of a pub in Pontypool, South Wales
The incident happened during the early hours of the morning while customers stood outside
Chesterman was restrained by revellers after he crashed into the railings
Chesterman, of Trevethin, Pontypool, pleaded guilty to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and dangerous driving.
The judge, Recorder Greg Bull KC, told him: ‘You drove in a dangerous and outrageous manner.
‘Whatever your grievance against Mr Palmer, that was no excuse for you going into your car in a drunken state, driving it without its lights illuminated and then driving it quite deliberately at Mr Palmer intending to inflict really serious harm on him.
‘If you had hit him and he’d died, you would have been charged with murder.
‘As it is, the terrifying act of driving that car at speed as is evidenced from the CCTV footage towards Mr Palmer, caused him to jump out of the way but sadly the car collided with Lauren Bull and also caused another pedestrian to also jump out of the way sustaining injury.
‘You drove at a crowd of people as the CCTV shows and it is remarkable that nobody was more seriously injured than they were.
‘This was deliberate, there was a small degree of planning and as you drove towards the gathering, the lights of the car were off and as has been admitted you had an intention to cause really serious harm to Mr Palmer.
‘Mercifully, not really serious harm was the result.’
Chesterman was jailed for 40 months and banned from driving for five years.
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