£10m Lotto drink-driver who crashed into student f ined £500
A LOTTO millionaire has been banned from the road after ploughing into a student’s car while more than four times the drinkdrive limit.
Jackpot winner Jake Bowman lost control of his £33,000 Audi S3 and veered across the lane, causing a head-on smash.
The other driver, 23-year-old Chloe Forbes, feared for her life and still suffers flashbacks.
Bowman has admitted drinkdriving and been fined £500.
Miss Forbes was going to a friend’s house to collect a textbook when Bowman – who won £10.3million two years ago – hit her Toyota Yaris on a rural road outside Forfar, Angus.
She said: ‘I thought I was going to die. I realised he was going to hit me. There was nowhere for me to go. He was coming straight for me as if he couldn’t see me.’
Miss Forbes said she had to crawl out of the passenger side of her car after the smash.
She said: ‘When I got out of the car I sat on the pavement, hyperventilating. I was in shock and having a panic attack. I was so worried about the other driver – I’d no idea he had been drinking.’
Miss Forbes was taken to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee. She had suffered cuts, bruises and torn muscles in her side.
Bowman, 61, was breathalysed at the roadside and had 111 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. A later test at the police station resulted in a reading of 92mg. The legal limit is 22mg.
Forfar Sheriff Court heard he told officers: ‘That’s quite high for the amount I have had to drink.’
The court heard that on the night of the crash, on April 8 this year, Bowman had been in a Forfar pub but decided to drive home to nearby Kingsmuir around 10.30pm.
He had feared his Audi would be damaged if left in the town because this had happened before. Bowman’s lawyer, Stephen McLaren, told the court the father of two was ‘deeply remorseful and apologises’ for his actions.
Bowman admitted drink-driving but was cleared of a more serious charge of dangerous driving. Sheriff Gregor Murray fined him £500 and disqualified him from driving for a year.
In Scotland, the level of fine is linked to an offender’s ability to pay but Bowman’s lottery payout was not mentioned in court.
Sheriff Gregor Murray said: ‘It might only have been two miles to your house and you knew the road but there are dangerous stretches and a series of nasty bends. It could have been a lot worse.’
Yesterday, Miss Forbes said Bowman ‘hasn’t even said sorry to me’, adding: ‘I’d like to be able to speak to him and explain the impact this has had on me.’
She said she passed her test at 17 but now dreads getting behind the wheel, and has been unable to attend lectures for her occupational therapy degree at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen.
She has also had to postpone an important course placement.
Miss Forbes said: ‘I can’t sit through classes. I had a bar job in Forfar and did volunteering work. All that has had to stop.
‘Whenever I drive down the road where it happened, I burst into tears. I have difficulty sleeping. As soon as I close my eyes I have flashbacks to the accident.’
Bowman – who had a £20,000-ayear job in a ladder-making factory in Forfar before his Lotto win – was not available for comment yesterday.
‘He hasn’t even said sorry to me’