Ex-policeman set free in clamper slapping case (From Tewkesbury Admag)

Ex-policeman set free in clamper slapping case

A FORMER policeman jailed on Monday for hitting a parking official who had clamped his car was freed again yesterday when he won an appeal against his 14-day sentence.

After just two nights in prison, Ian Styles, aged 44, had his jail sentence quashed and he was instead fined £500 by a judge at Gloucester Crown Court.

Styles, of Melville, Bourton, had left his car in the parking area in front of a parade of stores in Winchcombe Street, Cheltenham, for 10 minutes on Christmas Eve to buy gifts for his children.

When he got back he found it had been clamped - and he slapped the man who did it.

Yesterday he appealed to the crown court against the severity of the jail term handed out on Monday by Cheltenham Magistrates and was successful.

Recorder Benjamin Browne QC, sitting with two magistrates, substituted the fine for the jail term.

The court heard that when Styles returned to his car to find it clamped two clampers drove up and told him he would have to pay £70 to release his car.

"The victim, Michael Bennett, wound down his window and Styles became abusive and threatening, slapping Mr Bennett in the face."

The prosecution accepted it was a slap rather than a punch and that Mr Bennett, suffered no visible injury.