Reprieve for teacher who drove his car at airport official

Judge sympathises with man who ‘lost his rag’ over airport drop-off charges

A TEACHER who drove his car at an airport official following an argument over a £3 drop-off charge has been spared prison after the judge agreed the levy was an “absolute disgrace”.

Graham Benbow, 55, flew into a rage at Manchester Airport when he was told he would have to pay the fee for dropping off a passenger at the departures terminal.

He began to drive through an open barrier but an airport official tried to stop him and ended up on the car bonnet for several hundred yards, Minshull Street Crown Court in Manchester heard. The unnamed man was uninjured but “genuinely believed” he could have died.

Admitting dangerous driving, Benbow, a psychology teacher at Altrincham Girls’ Grammar School, could have been sent to prison for two years, but he received a sixmonth suspended sentence after Judge Bernard Lever declared he was “100 per cent against” the drop-off charge at the airport.

He said: “I think that it is an absolute disgrace that people cannot deliver people to airports without paying an extraordinary amount.

“The airport does not need to charge £3 for people to drop people off. I saw a troop of elderly people who had been dropped off away from the airport trying to avoid these unjust charges. These were not young joggers, they were elderly people who had to be dropped off some distance away.”

He told Benbow, of Stockton Heath, near Warrington: “You are fortunate indeed that I have faced these facilities myself recently. While I am 100 per cent against your behaviour and losing self control, I am 100 per cent against the airport behaving in this manner against people who have no or little choice at dropping their families off.

“I quite understand why you lost your rag and flipped but I have to make it clear to everyone that they must not lose their temper and it does not retract from the fact that this was very dangerous driving and what you did was very reckless and dangerous.”

The incident occurred on July 23 last year, 13 days after the charge was introduced “to ease growing congestion”.

Benbow was banned from driving for 12 months and must retake a driving test after the ban.

At the airport, people are charged £3 for a five-minute drop-off or £4 for 10 minutes. This applies outside the airport terminals and at the railway station. Anyone found “circling” faces a £25 penalty.

A spokesman for Manchester Airport criticised the judge’s remarks. “It is, in our view, irresponsible for someone in a position of authority to be sending this kind of message to road users about the consequences of dangerous driving,” they said.

“Anyone who has experienced an attack of this nature would be appalled by the judge’s comments and attitude towards determining a suitable punishment for criminal driving.”

Joshua Harris, of Brake, a road safety charity, said: “The judge’s comments are wholly inappropriate.

“Mr Benbow’s driving was clearly dangerous and must be condemned as such. Comments that aim to rationalise this behaviour only diminish the seriousness of the crime and belittle efforts to improve road safety.”