Cyclist goes to jail for slashing 2,000 car tyres
mainstream | 16.04.2004 20:10
A British cyclist was jailed for 16 months after admitting to slashing almost 2,000 vehicle tyres in revenge for the actions of "inconsiderate" motorists.
Ashley Carpenter, 37, began his one-man campaign attacking tyres on 548 cars, vans and lorries with a sharpened screwdriver after one car almost knocked him off his bike and another splashed him with a puddle.
Judge Stephen Lennard, sentencing Carpenter at Bournemouth Crown Court in southern England, called the scale of the revenge spree, costing an estimated 250,000 pounds (375,000 euros, 460,000 pounds) in new tyres and other expenses to victims, "breathtaking".
"In December last year, motivated by frustration and anger at what you considered to be the inconsiderate manner of motorists as experienced by you as a cyclist and a pedestrian, you embarked on your astonishing and extraordinary campaign," Lennard said.
Unemployed Carpenter -- described by his own defence counsel as a "socially inadequate" loner -- had decided to "send out a message to motorists", the judge said.
"In a period of 10 to 11 days, armed with a sharpened screwdriver, probably sharpened for the purpose, you went out and punctured 1,728 separate tyres on 548 different motor vehicles" in Bournemouth and nearby Christchurch.
"The scale of the damage and the financial consequences of it are breathtaking."
Ashley Carpenter, 37, began his one-man campaign attacking tyres on 548 cars, vans and lorries with a sharpened screwdriver after one car almost knocked him off his bike and another splashed him with a puddle.
Judge Stephen Lennard, sentencing Carpenter at Bournemouth Crown Court in southern England, called the scale of the revenge spree, costing an estimated 250,000 pounds (375,000 euros, 460,000 pounds) in new tyres and other expenses to victims, "breathtaking".
"In December last year, motivated by frustration and anger at what you considered to be the inconsiderate manner of motorists as experienced by you as a cyclist and a pedestrian, you embarked on your astonishing and extraordinary campaign," Lennard said.
Unemployed Carpenter -- described by his own defence counsel as a "socially inadequate" loner -- had decided to "send out a message to motorists", the judge said.
"In a period of 10 to 11 days, armed with a sharpened screwdriver, probably sharpened for the purpose, you went out and punctured 1,728 separate tyres on 548 different motor vehicles" in Bournemouth and nearby Christchurch.
"The scale of the damage and the financial consequences of it are breathtaking."
Vengeful cyclist jailed for slashing 2,000 car tyres
Fri Apr 16,11:55 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A British cyclist was jailed for 16 months after admitting to slashing almost 2,000 vehicle tyres in revenge for the actions of "inconsiderate" motorists.
AFP/File Photo
Ashley Carpenter, 37, began his one-man campaign attacking tyres on 548 cars, vans and lorries with a sharpened screwdriver after one car almost knocked him off his bike and another splashed him with a puddle.
Judge Stephen Lennard, sentencing Carpenter at Bournemouth Crown Court in southern England, called the scale of the revenge spree, costing an estimated 250,000 pounds (375,000 euros, 460,000 pounds) in new tyres and other expenses to victims, "breathtaking".
"In December last year, motivated by frustration and anger at what you considered to be the inconsiderate manner of motorists as experienced by you as a cyclist and a pedestrian, you embarked on your astonishing and extraordinary campaign," Lennard said.
Unemployed Carpenter -- described by his own defence counsel as a "socially inadequate" loner -- had decided to "send out a message to motorists", the judge said.
"In a period of 10 to 11 days, armed with a sharpened screwdriver, probably sharpened for the purpose, you went out and punctured 1,728 separate tyres on 548 different motor vehicles" in Bournemouth and nearby Christchurch.
"The scale of the damage and the financial consequences of it are breathtaking."
Fri Apr 16,11:55 AM ET
LONDON (AFP) - A British cyclist was jailed for 16 months after admitting to slashing almost 2,000 vehicle tyres in revenge for the actions of "inconsiderate" motorists.
AFP/File Photo
Ashley Carpenter, 37, began his one-man campaign attacking tyres on 548 cars, vans and lorries with a sharpened screwdriver after one car almost knocked him off his bike and another splashed him with a puddle.
Judge Stephen Lennard, sentencing Carpenter at Bournemouth Crown Court in southern England, called the scale of the revenge spree, costing an estimated 250,000 pounds (375,000 euros, 460,000 pounds) in new tyres and other expenses to victims, "breathtaking".
"In December last year, motivated by frustration and anger at what you considered to be the inconsiderate manner of motorists as experienced by you as a cyclist and a pedestrian, you embarked on your astonishing and extraordinary campaign," Lennard said.
Unemployed Carpenter -- described by his own defence counsel as a "socially inadequate" loner -- had decided to "send out a message to motorists", the judge said.
"In a period of 10 to 11 days, armed with a sharpened screwdriver, probably sharpened for the purpose, you went out and punctured 1,728 separate tyres on 548 different motor vehicles" in Bournemouth and nearby Christchurch.
"The scale of the damage and the financial consequences of it are breathtaking."
mainstream
Comments
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Cars cost the earth!
16.04.2004 20:49
Earth Firster
Controversial?
16.04.2004 22:08
London cyclist
tictacs
16.04.2004 23:18
Shame he wasn't more choosy. Rather than pick on any car (such as shitty old Ford Escorts - there speaks an old-ish escort owner), he should have confined it to BMWs, Mercedes, ridiculous 4x4s etc. That way there'd have been an outcry for him!
Bit more of the class warfare needed methinks...
xrichx
hmm
17.04.2004 11:12
boris
cars
17.04.2004 19:11
Also www.roadalert.org.uk
and for an ace anti-car rant
As for whether he's a "sad fucked up bloke" - how his defence painted him could well have been a ploy to try and get the sentence mitigated; it's a tactic I've seen many a solicitor/barrister use in court. Unless you're talking about what he did - set aside for a moment, especially after reading "Away with All Cars" (link above), the quality of public transport or the issues connected to some people 'needing' cars more - and consider for a moment the huge destruction on so many levels that cars and the industries that support them wreak on the planet that supports us, never mind directly on communities and individuals. This cyclists actions, as such, are a hugely rational move (though of course, there might be car showrooms, factories etc which could be targetted). And if you've ever spent time cycling around in cities, it's unlikely you've not thought up plans to wreak revenge on not just that motorist that nearly killed you, but all of the bastards! And imagine if enough tyres were slashed consistently enough - then cars would suddenly be a tad less convenient than public transport!
another EF!er
Homepage:
http://www.earthfirst.org.uk
Let the dogs piss on the cars
17.04.2004 19:44
I take your point about the legal argument possibly painting the guy more fucked up than he is. However, if he is not screwed up, then he singularly lacks any class, as opposed to environmental, consciousness. It must have been kind of funny, I grant you, seeing a whole street of people all fail to move their cars at the same moment, all realising their tyres had been slashed, but I also guarantee that every one of them was not about to go to the golf club, to sign a share deal or whatever, and some were severely in stuck wwhen they couldn't take their kids or elderly relatives to the place they needed to go, or got in trouble cos they couldn't get to work themselves...
London cyclist
a little mathematical thinking
17.04.2004 21:16
this makes an average of 144.68 pounds (217 euros) per tyre. I've got no car, but they seem a bit espensive tyres!
'jailed for 16 months'
and they call it justice! it makes about 6hours 40min in jail per tyre!
'on 548 different motor vehicles'
makes an average of 3.155 tyres per vehicle
should had he punctured every single tyres of any vehicle he assaulted (not considering the spare tyre), this could make:
84 four-wheeled vehicles
464 three-wheeled vehicles
how many three-wheeled vehicles there are, in Bournemouth?
ugo from bra, italy
ugo
Consideration for others
19.04.2004 16:27
Just because Carpenter had a few disagreements with a minority of bad drivers does not give him the right to damage everybody else's personal property.
There is no justification for the reckless, potentially dangerous, violent action that he took.
I have been carved up by cars,that does not give me the right to go and conduct a campaign of violence against other peoples' cars.
Would it be fair to all other cyclists if I started trashing bikes because one nutter slashed all four of my tyres? Of course not.
Bournemouth car driver