Mansfield courier injured woman by driving off as she clung to his car door

Mark Wardle was giving the woman a lift home, but became angry and shouted that "he f****** hated her" after learning she had discussed him with his current girlfriend, said prosecutor Richard Thatcher.

She hit him in the face, got out of his Citroen Picasso and continued shouting and swearing at him, at a bus stop on Jubilee Way South, at 11.30pm, on December 19, 2019.

She reached into the car and broke his ignition keys with one foot on the sill of the passenger door. Her daughter tried to pull her mother away and told Wardle to drive off.

Wardle, aged 50, later explained: "I put my foot down a little bit and was going at about 15 mph."

"It was a reckless attempt to get rid of her," Mr Thatcher added.

The woman's shoulder "popped," she dropped to the road and was knocked unconscious, sustaining "a very nasty head injury," a dislocated shoulder and a fractured nose. A three inch scar was still visible on her forehead two years later.

Nottingham Crown Court heard Wardle was last in trouble, for a dissimilar matter, in 2017, but 25 years have elapsed since his last convictions for driving offences.

Matthew Smith, mitigating, said: “In many respects it's a very sad case for all involved.”

He said the woman "didn't help the situation."

The defendant, who has “significant” health issues, was a courier who "worked long hours during the pandemic providing a valuable service," said Mr Smith, and will lose his job as a result of the disqualification.

Wardle, of Hadfield Walk, pleaded guilty on a basis to causing serious injury by dangerous driving shortly before a trial.

On Wednesday, Judge Julie Warburton said "issues from the past" caused animosity in the car that evening.

"I accept you had no intention to cause any injury to her," she told him, but described his actions as "reckless and foolish."

She sentenced him to ten months, suspended for 18 months, with 20 rehabilitation days, and banned him for two years.

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