A taxi driver, who had drank beer, broke a teenage cyclist's collarbone in a crash, before driving off.
Gary Jacques, 51, of Kingsley Road, Runcorn, later claimed he thought the boy must not have been injured as he saw him standing in his rear mirror and he was “concerned” about stopping among a group of youths.
Joshua Sanderson-Kirk, prosecuting today at North Cheshire Magistrates' Court in Warrington, said police were called to Festival Way in Runcorn following reports a teenager had been “knocked off his bike by a taxi” and the vehicle had continued on its way.
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At the scene, officers found a 14-year-old boy “sitting on a wall clutching his shoulder, and witnesses who said the car involved was a taxi with the firm Apec."
The teenage cyclist was taken to hospital and diagnosed as having suffered a broken collarbone and a scraped ankle and back.
Police visited the taxi company, which put out two alerts to its drivers for someone to come forward.
Jacques responded to the second request, but said he couldn’t head to the office as he had “consumed alcohol” and had drunk “three bottles of Budweiser” since returning home.
When police visited him, Jacques tested positive for 51 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath - above the legal limit of 35, and admitted to having been the driver.
Mr Sanderson-Kirk said Jacques, in his basis of plea, said he had “looked in his rear view mirror and saw (the boy) was standing and didn’t think any injury was caused” but now accepted “that’s not the right course of action” and “he had been drinking at the time of the accident”.
Jacques later pleaded guilty to failing to stop at the scene of an accident, driving without due care and attention, and driving with excess alcohol, in connection with the collision on March 29.
Judith Hawkins, defending, said Jacques was “very sorry indeed and very contrite” and feels “boundless remorse”.
She said at the time of the collision Jacques was not working as a taxi driver and was returning from consoling a bereaved friend whose child had died.
She said he had drunk “some beers - a couple of beers at that time” and then “drove down the road where this regrettable incident happened”, telling the court “we can never know if he had been a few degrees under or over the drink driving limit”.
Ms Hawkins said Jacques was a “51-year-old gentleman who’s not been in trouble before and he’s not going to be in trouble again”, and had told her “if only he could go back and deal with matters differently”.
Jacques, she said, experienced “enormous regret”, having previously lived an “unblemished” and “hard-working” life but was not "devastated" at being "largely unable to work" since the incident.
Ms Hawkins said the Crown’s case accepted that on the evening in question, “an obscene gesture was made to my client”, adding he “didn’t deliberately collide with the complainant’s bicycle” and although “aware there was contact”, saw the “victim standing with his bicycle” and didn’t think there had been any injury or damage.
Jacques was also wary of stopping.
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Ms Hawkins said: “He was concerned about stopping in any event by the roadside with a group of youths around him.
“These days you simply can’t tell what is going to happen and he wouldn’t want anything to escalate.”
A variety of character references were also summarised to the court, with one describing the defendant as a “decent fella”.
Magistrates chaired by Lynn Colter-Howard, who called the offences “very serious matters”, handed Jacques a 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work and banned him from driving for 14 months.
She warned him he could go to prison if he breaches the disqualification.
He was also ordered to pay £250 in prosecution costs and a £95 victim surcharge, and offered a place on a drink drive rehabilitation course.
The court heard civil compensation proceedings were under way.
Jacques hid his face by walking backwards and behind his family as he left court.
