Slighted driver jailed over drunken rampage

Stephen McGuire had been drinking and was already in an emotional state following the break-up of a relationship.

He was meant to be part of a group of colleagues from Morrisons in Knottingley going on a night out to Manchester on February 26 but having broken up with another staff member decided not to go, David Garnett, prosecuting, told Leeds Crown Court.

Others had tried to persuade him to change his mind and text messages were sent to him but he “took them in the wrong spirit”.

Following an exchange of further texts when he made threats to some of the group, when they arrived back in the early hours to the car park in Knottingley he turned up in his Vauxhall Corsa.

Mr Garnett said statements described the group cheering his arrival and saying “he’s finally turned up” but McGuire then drove towards them at speed.

One man put his hand out to slow him down but McGuire did not do so and caught him on the leg. He then reversed with tyres screeching before driving forward and striking a woman, knocking her backwards through the air so she landed on her back.

A taxi driver who had witnessed the incident had got out of his vehicle nearby and McGuire, reversing, then struck him while narrowly avoiding the head of the injured woman on the ground, before he finally drove off.

The woman was found to have a swollen knee, cuts and bruises at hospital while the taxi driver had tenderness to his leg, back and neck and blurred vision which prevented him working. The taxi, which had also been struck, had suffered £500 damage.

Shufquat Khan for McGuire told the court he accepted he acted inappropriately and recklessly while in drink and an emotional state. “He took offence at what he felt was a slight which clearly was not.”

McGuire, 21 of Windermere Drive, Warwick Estate, Knottingley was jailed for six months and banned from driving for two years after he admitted dangerous driving and three charges of assault.

Recorder Toby Wynn told him: “You formed a drunken intent to use your vehicle as a weapon to cause fear and fright to your work colleagues, putting lives at risk.”