Driver fined after Falkirk parking space row
A driver has been fined after using his car to nudge a man out of a parking space he was trying to reserve for his mum.
A mother has told a court how she watched in alarm as another motorist drove into her son's legs as he stood trying to save her a car parking space outside a pet shop.
John Mein, 43, struck Jill Allison's son Douglas, a 24-year-old optician at Specsavers, twice on the thighs with the bonnet of his Vauxhall Zafira after she asked him to keep the space for him outside Pets at Home on the Central Retail Park in Falkirk.
Mrs Allison told Falkirk Sheriff Court the retail park car park had been busy and she had initially parked outwith the designated area, beside some skips.
The Pets at Home visit, she said, was to buy "pinky mice for Douglas's snake", and they then planned to go to Tesco nearby.
While they were paying for the snake snacks, she noticed that a space had become vacant.
She said: "I said to Douglas, 'we've got more shopping to do, I'm not happy with the car parked up by the bins, how's about you jump out and stand in that space?'"
Douglas said he did as he was told, though it was not something he did "often".
But when his mother went to get her white Honda CRV, she had to give way to Mein, who drove into the car park at that point, and spotted the space Douglas was standing in.
Douglas said in evidence: "He came in and approached the space -- it was the only vacant space to my knowledge.
"I gestured that I was holding the space for Mum by raising my arm."
He said Mein turned into the space and stopped, but then shook his head and "drove towards me".
He said: "It was quite sudden, faster than walking pace. I didn't expect it, I was shocked.
"The vehicle made contact with my thighs. I lost my balance so I put my hand on the bonnet to steady myself and moved up the space.
"I was pushed backwards by the car maybe half a metre.
"As I was pushing myself off the bonnet to regain my balance the vehicle accelerated again. Again I had to put my hands on the bonnet to steady myself, but I skipped to the left to get out of the way of the vehicle and it proceeded into the rest of the space. Again it touched my thigh, and I had to use my hands to get out of the way."
Douglas said Mein then got out of his car.
He said: "I told him he couldn't push people with his car, and I was going to take a picture of his number plate and report it to the police.
Mrs Allison told the court she felt "quite anxious" seeing her son being "shunted" by a car that was moving fast enough to unbalance him.
Mein, of Mariner Drive, Falkirk, a self-employed joiner and a married father-of-one, denied assaulting Mr Allison by driving at him and striking him on the legs with his car in the incident, which occurred about 1.15 pm on November 8th last year (2015).
He claimed Mr Allison had "jumped" in front of his car and put his hands on the bonnet, "demanding" the space.
Finding him guilty after summary trial on Friday, Sheriff Gillian Wade QC said she preferred the evidence of Douglas and his mother, whom she described as credible, reliable and plausible.
Mein - who had only one previous conviction, for careless driving -- was fined £750.
Sheriff Wade said: "It's unfortunate this arose over a parking space, which is really on the face of it quite a trivial matter."
Jill Allison is a director of Glasgow based media production company JEA, together with her husband Jim Allison.
Mr Allison was not injured, though he attended court on crutches, due to an unrelated sports injury.