A 70-YEAR-OLD man who drove a hire car into a taxi and crashed into the entrance of a Checkers Xpress corner shop on Mulcaster Street, wrecking the doorway, has been fined £4,000 and apologised for his “poor driving”.
Mark Fisher admitted one count of dangerous driving when he appeared in the Magistrate’s Court this week and was told he was lucky he had not injured anyone during the incident, which took place on the evening of 8 October.
Fisher, who was unrepresented in court, had been in the Island to attend a relative’s funeral that day.
Advocate Kate Ridley, prosecuting, told the court a taxi driver, who had been driving down Mulcaster Street, tried to stop – but Fisher hit the back of the taxi, before going into the entrance of Checkers Xpress.
The court was shown CCTV footage of the crash, as well as pictures of damage to the cars and the shop.
There was no suggestion that Fisher had been speeding, and a breath test showed a reading of 0.
He immediately told police officers that he was at fault and he received credit for his early guilty plea, the court heard.
Fisher said: “First of all I would like to apologise to the court and to emergency services for the time and resources that my poor driving has resulted in, and in particular to the third parties involved, the taxi driver and the shop.”
He explained that he had been in Jersey to attend a relative’s funeral and had dropped off members of his family before the crash.
Fisher suggested he might have been blinded by shop lights, and said that when he saw the other driver, he tried to speed up in order to avoid a collision.
He said: “I was entirely at fault. There is no doubt about it.”
He thanked the police officers he dealt with for treating him “with the utmost respect”.
Assistant Magistrate Adam Clarke gave Fisher a £4,000 fine and disqualified him from holding a Jersey driving licence – but pointed out that, given Fisher did not hold a Jersey licence, this was unlikely to affect him.
He said: “It was in an area where there might well have been pedestrians. I think it is all by luck that no one was coming out of the shop, for example.”
