Man jailed for causing £46,000 of damage at Stratford car dealership
A man who went on a drunken rampage on the forecourt of a Stratford car dealership, causing £46,000 of damage to brand new Land Rovers and Range Rovers has been jailed.
Vasile Turcan had used his own car to smash into 12 vehicles at the Guy Salmon dealership in revenge for not getting paid by a car valeting company he had been working for.
Turcan (36) of no fixed address, and who was living in his Ford Mondeo at the time, had pleaded guilty to two charges of causing criminal damage and driving with excess alcohol.
And at Warwick Crown Court he was jailed for 12 months and banned from driving for 25 months.
Prosecutor Olivia Beesley said that at 2pm on Saturday July 29, Turcan was in his Mondeo, which had cost him £200 two weeks earlier, on the car park of the Tesco store in Birmingham Road, Stratford.
Having spent the night there in the car, he began drinking watered-down alcohol-based mouthwash before trying to withdraw money from his account at an ATM machine at the store.
But even though he had £50 in his account, it would only allow him to get £40 – at which he lost his temper and damaged the machine by kicking and punching it.
He then got in his car and drove to the Guy Salmon Land Rover dealership, said Miss Beesley.
“He drove onto the forecourt and used his car to damage new vehicles which were parked there by driving forward and then reversing into them, and he made impact with 12 vehicles.”
Turcan, who had no previous convictions, caused £46,000 damage to vehicles worth a total of more than £400,000.
When Turcan, who had remained at the scene, was arrested, a breath test showed he had just over double the legal limit of alcohol – and he was still over the limit when he was tested again at the police station.
He admitted the offences, explaining that he was upset because he had not been paid £400 in wages for three weeks work with Autoclenz, which valets cars for Guy Salmon.
So he had gone there intending to damage vehicles in the hope that Autoclenz would lose its contract as a result, ‘and he laughed about the damage he had caused throughout the interview,’ Miss Beesley added.
Ian Speed, defending, said Turcan had been in custody for almost four months, and argued that he could be sentenced to ‘time served,’ which was rejected by Judge Andrew Lockhart QC.
Mr Speed said there had been a delay in the case being dealt with when it was adjourned at an earlier hearing because a far higher figure had originally been put on the damage, which had needed to be checked.
Jailing Turcan, Judge Lockhart told him through a Romanian interpreter: “You acted very irresponsibly. You were angered by reason of someone you believed was not paying you for your work, and you took drink which made you unfit to drive.
“You went to a cashpoint and smashed it up when it did not give you the money you wanted.
“Not thinking rationally, you then went to Guy Salmon Motors and decided to take out on them something that should not have been falling at their door.
“There you drove your car backwards and forwards, causing damage to a number of new cars, £46,000 of damage to 12 cars.
“When you were interviewed you made admissions, but still blamed Autoclenz. I have not been impressed by your views in the pre-sentence report that they are still in some way to blame.
“It’s not their fault. This was a revenge attack, and your intention was to cause serious damage.”