Drive ban for school run mum who nudged eco zealots with Range Rover
A MOTHER on the school run who used her Range Rover to nudge eco-protesters blocking the road told of her fury as she was banned from driving yesterday.
Sherrilyn Speid – who has no previous convictions – insisted she should never have been hauled to court and said she had been hailed a hero by other motorists for tackling Insulate Britain protesters sitting in the road to stop traffic.
‘I shouldn’t have been here today, sorry, but I’m just a working mum who was trying to get my boy to school,’ she said.
The 35-year-old mother of two, from Grays, Essex, spoke out as she was banned from driving for a year and ordered to pay £240 in fines and court costs for dangerous driving. She must also carry out 20 days of community punishment. Prior to the hearing, even Insulate Britain had called for charges to be dropped.
The mental health support worker was taking her 11-year-old son to school in her £80,000 Range Rover Sport when she came across the protest near the M25 at 8.30am on October 13 last year.
Basildon Magistrates’ Court was played footage showing her begging protesters to move. When they refused, she inched forward, nudging two female protesters in the backs. Speid was charged with assault, but that count was dropped and she admitted dangerous driving instead.
Earlier, the defendant, who was dressed in a black hoodie and leggings, wept as her lawyer Lauren Hebditch explained how Speid had fled her family home just days before the incident as a victim of ‘domestic violence’.