A man who was filmed driving a stolen car at a group of cyclists in south London has pleaded guilty to a series of charges, including dangerous driving.
Appearing yesterday at Inner London Crown Court by videolink, Shane Seymour, aged 25 and from Southwark, also pleaded guilty to the theft of a car and driving while disqualified as well as two counts of burglary, reports BBC News.
The incident began at a set of traffic lights outside Clapham North Underground station on the morning of 1 August, with Seymour subsequently swerving aggressively towards cyclist Dave Clifton, who captured the footage.
At another set of traffic lights between Clapham and Vauxhall, Seymour threw objects from his car – a black Audi with false licence plates – while yelling at them.
Further up the road, he turned into a side street, causing one cyclist to come off his bike although that was not caught on camera, then repeatedly drove towards a group of riders who had stopped to lend assistance.
Seymour could be heard shouting, “It’s a stolen car,” and it was only when an unmarked police car arrived at the scene that Seymour made off.
He was arrested almost three weeks after the incident following a police appeal.
At yesterday’s hearing, Seymour also pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary as well as four other counts of dangerous driving, four counts of driving while disqualified and two counts of theft.
BBC News says that none of those charges relate to the incident that happened in Clapham, and that Seymour is due to appear again at the same court on 4 February next year.
5 thoughts on “Thief who aimed car at south London cyclists pleads guilty”
The thing is, when someone’s
The thing is, when someone’s been disqualified from driving and yet continues to do so, what else can be done?
It’ll be interesting to see what sort of sentence he gets. He has previous and this list of charges looks rather lengthy.
OldRidgeback wrote:
Its this bit I find most worrying: what has he been up to…?
“BBC News says that none of those charges relate to the incident that happened in Clapham, and that Seymour is due to appear again at the same court on 4 February next year.”
He was talking by videolink,
He was talking by videolink, so he’s inside on remand, he’s going down for a while.
I know it sounds a bit
I know it sounds a bit ‘eugenics’y, but it would benefit society if the prosecution could apply for sterilisation in some cases!
Speaking in mitigation,
Speaking in mitigation, Seymour’s solicitor said that he was, at first, unaware of the cyclists because the sun was in his eyes. After discussing the situation with the cyclists, he offered some sensible advice around ensuring that they remain in the gutter at all times whilst riding on busy roads, and that they should always travel in the cycle lanes provided. Whilst practicing ‘Reversing Round a Corner’ as per the Highway Code in preparation for his upcoiming Advanced Driving Course, one of the cyclists ‘came out of nowhere’ and lightly brushed the rear of his vehicle. Once viewing the footage of his actions as captured by the cycists, Seymour was full of remorse – his friendly offer a bottle hand-down from the car was obviously misinterpreted, and he has suffered sleepless nights and deeply regrets not making his intentions regarding that much clearer at the time…
His is a sad tale, m’lud – his original intention in life was to become an architect, but this ambition was quashed by a cruel quirk of fate – he was singularly unable to concentrate at school due to severe ADHD, and achieved only the most rudimentary of qualifications (something which also explains his forgetfulness over having his driving license suspended, and forgetting to renew his car insurance) – leaving him the only option of descending rapidly into a life of petty crime
I submit that a custodial sentence would not be the best approach in sentencing, your honour. He has clearly learned his lesson and has suffered immensely already through the scandal of social media mockery – perhaps a short period of community service followed by a schedule of driving lessons paid for by the state would be the moist appropriate.