JUST DESERTS


MAN JAILED FOR THREE YEARS FOR OVERTAKING AND CRASHING INTO FULL TAXI IN FRINTON


A driver has been jailed after overtaking a car on a blind bend and crashing headlong into a taxi full of people. Sean Dray tried to overtake a vehicle in Frinton last year but crashed into the taxi which spun out of control and hit a tree. On Saturday, July 23, 2022, Dray, 30, was driving his BMW X5 at speed along Walton Road at around 10.30pm when he overtook one car on a blind bend along the single carriageway. He crashed into the taxi and then the wall of a house. The force of the rear impact caused the taxi, a Toyota Avensis, to spin out of control, coming to a


stop when it crashed into a tree.


When police arrived, two people were trapped in the taxi which had extensive dam-


age and needed assistance from emergency partners to get out and four people from the taxi sustained serious injuries. Dray, of Clacton, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of drink driving but refused to provide a blood sample in police custody. During his interview,


Dray explained that he was trying to


overtake but had to take evasive action as he crossed over onto the wrong side of the road into the path of oncoming traffic. He appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on January 31 where he admitted four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. On April 19 at Chelmsford Crown Court, he was jailed for three years and disqualified from driving for three and a half years. Roads Policing Unit officer, PC Danny Wheeler, said: “The victims of Sean Dray’s dangerous driving did not deserve what happened to them that night and it could certainly have been avoided.”


LANARKSHIRE THUG JAILED FOR 12 MONTHS AFTER THREATENING CABBIE WITH BROKEN BOTTLE


A Lanarkshire thug has been jailed for 12 months for threatening a cabbie with a broken bottle after being told that he’d have to walk home. Hamilton Sheriff Court heard that the cab had stopped after Ryan McMillan and his girlfriend began fighting in the back seats. McMillan took exception to being asked to get out and made the driver hand back the £8 fare. The 24-year-old, from Hamilton, admitted assaulting his partner and assaulting and robbing the driver. Violence flared as they were being driven along the A725 near Blantyre on April 10, 2021. Alice Carey, prosecuting, said the couple and another male and


PHTM JUNE 2023


female were travelling from East Kilbride in the early hours of the morning and that McMillan’s partner “began an argument with [him] in the back of the taxi”. She told the court: “She shouted and swore at him and brandished a bottle. On hearing the disturbance the driver pulled over to the side of the dual carriageway. “The couple were now in a physical altercation. McMillan grabbed his partner by the hair and punched her repeatedly on the head. The other two persons in the back seats managed to split up the fight. “[The driver] then asked them all to get out. McMillan became hostile, shouting, ‘give me my money back or you’ll get this


bottle in you.’


“He again demanded money and called the driver a p***. [The driver] gave him £8 and all four passengers made off on foot in the direction of Blantyre.” Defence agent Jackson Bateman admitted his client’s record is “poor” but said he has been in no trouble since this incident and is working. Mr Bateman added: “He seems to have made significant changes for the better.” However, Sheriff Colin Dunipace decided only a prison sentence was appropriate, telling McMillan: “This is your fifth appearance on indictment for matters relating to disorder or violence – at the age of 24, that’s an appalling record.”


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