Judge frees teacher who rammed airport worker with his car over £3 drop-off fee
... because he agrees the parking charges are ‘a disgrace’
A GRAMMAR school teacher who drove at an airport official in protest at new drop-off charges escaped jail after a judge agreed the fees were ‘a disgrace’.
Graham Benbow, 55, lost his temper and tried to drive through an open barrier at manchester Airport instead of paying £3 to drop off his passenger at departures.
When an official tried to intervene, Benbow ploughed into him, carrying the worker on the bonnet of his mazda for several hundred yards, a court was told.
Although the unnamed worker was uninjured, police arrested Benbow, a psychology teacher at one of Britain’s top girls’ grammar schools, and charged him with dangerous driving.
on Thursday he wept as Judge Bernard Lever, sitting at manchester’s minshull Street Crown Court, allowed him to walk free with a six-month jail term, suspended for two years.
The judge said he understood why Benbow ‘lost his rag’ and that he too was against the charges ‘100 per cent’, having dropped his cousin off at the airport only days previously.
‘Although it is no excuse for dangerous driving, I think that it is an absolute disgrace that people cannot deliver people to airports without paying an extraordinary amount,’ the judge said.
‘The airport already does make a lot of money and does not need to charge £3 to drop people off.’
The judge revealed he had experienced the charges last Sunday when he took his cousin to the airport for a flight.
He told Benbow, of Stockton Heath, Cheshire: ‘You are fortunate indeed that I have faced these facilities myself away from the airport trying to recently. Whilst I am 100 per cent avoid these unjust charges. I against your behaviour, I am 100 quite understand why you lost per cent against the airport your rag and completely flipped behaving in this manner against in the way you did.’ people who have no or little choice But he added: ‘Judges have to of dropping their families at the uphold the regulations. This was airport in this way. very dangerous driving and what
‘my sister warned me that by you did was very reckless.’ the time you have got to the front The incident occurred in July, 13 you are allowed just minutes or days after manchester Airport seconds and they start charging introduced the new charges. Anyone you more. I saw a troop of elderly dropping off at its terminals people who had been dropped off must now pay £3 for five minutes or £4 for ten minutes and those caught ‘circling’ face a £25 penalty.
Airport chiefs claim the move will ease congestion, but it prompted a furious reaction from motorists and taxi drivers, who accused them of ‘ripping off’ and ‘squeezing the last penny’ out of travellers. Benbow, who works at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, was in the drop-off area at the airport when he encountered the official on July 23.
Prosecutor Duncan Wilcock said: ‘The defendant noticed one of the barriers was open and began to race towards the barrier to get away with not paying.
‘The staff member placed himself against the barrier to stop him but the defendant did not stop. The complainant got on to the bonnet of the car and was in fear of his safety. In a statement he said he feared for his life.’
Benbow, who admitted dangerous driving, was banned from driving for 12 months. manchester Airport said it may try to refer the sentence to the Court of Appeal on the grounds that it was unduly lenient.
An airport spokesman said: ‘It beggars belief that the judge has used his sentencing comments to attempt to rationalise the behaviour of a convicted criminal based on his own views.
‘Aside from these personal experiences being wholly irrelevant, many of the comments are inaccurate and misleading.’
‘I quite understand why you lost your rag’