Scales of justice favour driver

Aug 17 2008 by Coreena Ford, Sunday Sun

A FISHERIES officer who was mown down by a car has hit out at the “lenient” sentence handed down to the reckless driver.

Edwin Hill, 54, has been jailed for a year and banned from driving for two years after a court heard how he drove straight at senior fishery officer David Nugent.

Hill was found guilty of dangerous driving and assault causing actual bodily harm after driving with David hanging on to the windscreen wipers of his car along Hartlepool’s Headland.

David, of Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, had hoped Hill would face a far longer jail term for the crime.

He said: “Considering the severity of the offence I think one year seems lenient.

“The barrister reckoned three to five years, which I would have expected, but I guess that is the way it is.”

David was investigating suspected illegal fishing activities when the incident happened in October. He was knocked on to the bonnet of Hill’s car when he refused to stop and be questioned about lobster catches and was carried 300m (328yds) before he was thrown off.

Hill, a part-time fisherman who had denied the charges, was convicted after a trial last month and was jailed at Teesside Crown Court last Monday.

Despite the short sentence, David was pleased Hill was found guilty.

He said: “It sends out a clear message to fishermen regarding their conduct. We have a job to do.”

David, a dad of two, revealed the incident isn’t the first he’s endured since becoming an official with The North Eastern Sea Fisheries Committee, but he brushed of the attacks, saying it’s all part of the job.

He said: “I’ve had three cars smashed up . . . one was set on fire while I was still in it. I’ve also been beaten up with a scaffolding bar and had a pit bull set on me.

“And two men I stopped after watching them pull in other people’s lobster pots dangled me by my shoulders over a cliff.”