An Indian millionaire’s 21-year-old son, who was involved in an accident that left a child paralysed, has become the first person in Britain to be convicted of a motoring offence
LONDON: An Indian millionaire’s 21-year-old son, who was involved in an accident that left a child paralysed, has become the first person in Britain to be convicted of a motoring offence using evidence from a “black box” recorder.
Birmingham Crown Court heard that the head-on collision caused by Antonio Boparan Singh left one-year-old Cerys Edwards’ brain damaged, paralysed and unable to breathe without a ventilator.
Five others were seriously injured in the accident that took place two years ago. Judge Frank Chapman told Boparan on Wednesday, “You should expect a custodial sentence at the top end of the two-year scale.”
Technical information from the “black box” recorder device fitted in the Range Rover Sport’s air bag was downloaded and used to prosecute Boparan, son of Ranjit
and Baljinder, who own Boparan Holdings ltd, a chicken supplier.
The millionaire couple featured in last year’s Sunday Times Rich list with an estimated fortune of £130 million. The recorder device notes the car’s performance on a 10-second loop.
In the event of a crash it freezes and stores the information at the point of impact, giving the car’s speed, engine speed, the angle of the brake and accelerator pedals and what gear it was in.
The information helped the jury convict Boparan unanimously of dangerous driving, which he denied. He was bailed until sentencing later this month after his parents agreed a one million pounds surety.
Boparan only had a license for six months when he drove his mother’s powerful Range Rover at 70mph, smashing head-on into another car while overtaking.
Boparan, who was 19 at the time, was speeding in Sutton Coldfield, West Mids, when he smashed into Tracy and Gavin Edwards’s vehicle. Cerys Edwards, who was in the other car, was severely injured and will need 24-hour care for the rest of her life.
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