Driver fined £5,000 over crash

A driver who smashed into another car head-on, injuring a mother and daughter, has been fined £5,000.

Businessman Paul McCreery was cleared of causing serious injury by dangerous driving but convicted of the lesser charge of careless driving.

The judge ordered McCreery, of The Street, Ulcombe, Maidstone, to pay the two victims £5,000 each in compensation.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Marion Wiseley and her daughter Jane were driv- ing home from a garden centre along 60mph limit Smarden Road in Headcorn at about 2.30pm on May 9 last year.

They were hit head-on by McCreery’s Audi as he came around a bend on the wrong side and were taken to William Harvey Hospital in Ashford after being cut free from their Fiesta.

Jane Wisely was referred to King’s College Hospital in London with a fractured breast bone, collarbone and vertebrae.

She had made her debut as a concert pianist just a month before the crash, having spent six years pursuing her dream but six weeks in hospital meant she was unable to practice and now struggles to sit due to her fractured spine.

McCreery, 65, said he had a momentary lapse in concentration.

Tom Stern, defending, said the collision resulted from a mistake on McCreery’s part rather than deliberate poor driving.