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news
Metropolitan Police.jpgHit-and-run on police officer earns driver 11 months' jail & three year driving ban
A man responsible for a hit and run on a Metropolitan Police officer has been sentenced to 11 months in jail and banned from driving for three years.
Leo Gowan, 23, of South East London, appeared at the Inner London Crown Court on Monday and pleaded guilty to Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) against a police officer from the Metropolitan Police’s Cycle Enforcement Team.
Cycling UK, the national cycling charity, called the length of the ban extraordinary given the circumstances of the collision, and said Gowan should not be allowed behind the wheel until he has had a “fundamental change of attitude”.
At a 2.45pm on 16 March the uniformed officer - part of the Met's Cycle Enforcement team and on patrol on a bicycle - attempted to stop Gowan's car as part of a routine operation to identify uninsured drivers.
A Metropolitan Police statement says: “Gowan initially stopped but then drove into the officer and over his bike, knocking the officer onto the car's bonnet. Gowan drove off erratically, swerving to dislodge the officer, who was eventually forced off and into the road.”
The officer was taken to hospital after the collision with minor injuries, and was discharged shortly after. Gowan’s car was found abandoned later that day, after which Gowan was found and charged.
Roger Geffen MBE, Cycling UK's Policy Director said: "It does seem extraordinary that Gowan did not receive a much longer driving ban, particularly given reports that he also left the scene of the crime.
"Anyone who drives with such willful disregard for another person's safety is a liability who should not be allowed behind a wheel again, at least until they have demonstrated a fundamental change of attitude.
"Cycling UK will call for much tougher use of driving bans, as part of our response to the Government's long awaited review of traffic offences and penalties due later this year."
The maximum sentence for Actual Bodily Harm is five years.
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
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11 comments
Very strange how the driver gets 11 months and a 3 year ban when hitting a police man and its not enough. ( It's the best result I have ever heard of )
Yet if it was not a police man but instead just a member of the cycling public the result would have been very different, either not enough evidence or a slap on the wrist.
Goes to show what the police service can actually get done if they investigated all crime as hard as they do when they are the victim.
Come on, if the victim hadn't been a copper they would have made him buy Leo a cake and appolgise for getting in way.
Sounds like PC plod managed to get this sentance increased. Well done!
I've got footage of a car deliberately running into me having previously been honking the horn and revving the engine. Submitted it to Surrey police and I was told to get back under my stone. Oh and by the way, we notice you have a history of reporting incidents, this is likely to impact the verification of any future incident you might be involved in (I tried to report a Stageoach bus running me off the road when overtaking me but they couldn't review the footage....over xmas - no coincident of course, and informed me 2 months later to ensure it had all died down and there was nothing they could do).
Had a van driver ram me deliberately, had witnesses, Sussex police said no crime commited as I escaped uninjured...
So the " CPS " FAIL to even ensure that " UNIFORMED CYCLING POLICE " are safe whilst ON DUTY !
What message was sent HERE ?
YOU CAN ATTEMPT to KILL a Cop , as long as they are on a BIKE ?
Congrats to the peanut that was conducting this CHARGE !
You got a conviction , but you set a Precedent !
WHAT is your next FAILURE ?
Erm- I think your caps lock key might be broken...
Incredible when even the courts won't hand down realistic sentences for drivers who use their car to attack a police cyclist. What chance do the rest of us have?
This once again shows the shambles of our sentencing system, reasonably strong punishment because the victim was a police officer. Yet any other cyclist...
Pathetic sentence. Pathetic legislation. Pathetic MPs.
And yet better than if his victim had *not* been a police officer...
"Anyone who drives with such willful disregard for another person's safety is a liability who should not be allowed behind a wheel
again, at least until they have demonstrated a fundamental change of attitude.ever."There we go. Fixed. And my politics wobbles somewhere between Trotsky and the Unabomber. Good that the officer wasn't badly hurt though.