Man Jailed For Driving Into Crowded Marquee

A businessman has been sentenced to 16 months behind bars for drunkenly ploughing his car into a marquee full of people at a charity ball.

Peter Bialek, 66, from Salisbury, was trying to move his car out of a parking space after it had been boxed in.

He lost control and the vehicle lurched forward and surged 20 metres into the crowd inside the marquee.

Bialek was immediately pulled from the car and assaulted.

At an earlier hearing he pleaded guilty to three counts of grievous bodily harm without intent and causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving.

Bialek had not intended to drive that night but his partner, who had not been drinking, was unable to manoeuvre their vehicle out of their parking space at the ball at Dene Farm near Andover, Hampshire, on 3 October last year.

Of the 21 people injured, a 65-year-old woman suffered a fractured ankle, her husband had three broken ribs and a 22-year-old woman had cuts to her legs.

Bialek's lawyer, Charles Gabb, told the court that he had lost control of the car because he had failed to find the brake pedal.

Mr Gabb said: "From the moment the car came to a stop when he turned the keys, he was expressing shock and horror at what happened.

And he added: "What happened on that night was a dreadful miscarriage of judgment. The consequences will live with all of the victims but he too will live with it for the rest of life.

"It has made the deepest impact on him possible, it will live with him until his dying day."

His stepdaughter Debbie Trant said: "He is a shadow of his former self. It's a terrible shame to see such a great man be reduced to this."

In sentencing, Mr Justice Teare told Bialek: "I have given considerable weight to your qualities as a human being, I accept that you are in every other respect a good man."

Bialek has also been banned from driving for two years and ordered to pay court costs of £750.