Our Wanker this week is an anonymous officer from the South Wales Police.
When a pedestrian was hit by a police car which mounted the pavement, it was obvious who was going to come off worse. After suffering a broken foot in the collision, however, Daniel Horne thought all the damage had been done.
Until he received an £80 fine - for denting the vehicle.
Yesterday the 28-year-old businessman told of his shock at being penalised for being hit by the marked car. Mr Horne had been walking home in June when the marked police car mounted the pavement and crushed his foot under the wheel.
The apologetic officer then took him to hospital where he spent three hours being treated for his damaged foot.
Mr Horne, who runs his own courier firm, was injured on his way home from a night out with friends. A flat tyre meant he and his friends were forced to pull over and leave the vehicle's warning lights flashing as they walked along a quiet village road seeking assistance.
Mr Horne recalled: "Apparently somebody saw us and thought we were dumping the car and they rang the police. I was just walking along the pavement and heard the police car siren coming behind us. The next thing I knew was that the police car came onto the pavement to stop us. The car hit my right leg and I fell over - with my foot being crushed under the front wheel of the patrol car. It was agony and my foot was in a hell of a state. We explained to the police that we were innocent and they quickly found out we were telling the truth."
The police driver took Daniel to hospital for treatment to his foot after the accident at Beddau, near Pontypridd, South Wales and waited with him. "The copper was very helpful and was there with me for about three hours while the doctors examined me," Mr Horne said. "My metatarsal was completely crushed and I was put in a cast. He gave me a lift back but then told me: 'Sorry but I've got to do this to cover myself.'
"I was amazed when he issued me with the £80 fixed penalty notice. I was speechless when he wrote out that I ran into a police vehicle causing a dent. It is just crazy. I was just innocently walking down the road when the car swerved in front of me to arrest us in a complete mistake. I just can't believe that anyone would honestly think that you would run into a police car."
What the police officer meant when he said "I've got to do this to cover myself" was that he was afraid he would be sued over the accident, so thought he would try to put the blame on his victim.
What a Wanker.
Our regular correspondent The Secret Policeman tells a similar story:
I had a very enjoyable incident back in the early 1990s when one of our foot patrols (we still did that in those days!) encountered a nutter running around with a machete. He radioed in for help and I zoomed off with lights and siren screaming. I arrived to see my mate cornered by said nutter with the machete. We only had a little wooden stick for self defence purposes at that time, so I used the police car instead. I drove the police car straight into the nutter's legs and pinned him up against the wall of a book shop. He dropped the machete in amazement!
The front of the book shop was a wee bit scuffed and the police car got a small dent. Our nutter was charged with criminal damage to the police car and the shop, as well as threatening behaviour and carrying an offensive weapon.
The GOS says: There's a significant difference between these two stories, though. The purpose of the law and of the police is to protect us from harm, but I imagine most of us would agree that a person who is committing a crime, such as threatening a policeman with a machete, has forfeited his right to that protection.
Mr.Horne wasn't, and hadn't.
Yes, definitely a Wanker.
either on this site or on the World Wide Web.
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