A trainee reporter on the Banbury Guardian helped put a dangerous driver behind bars after finding a video of the man’s crazy road antics on YouTube.
David Lumb came across a video of Sandor Ferenci doing 130mph on his motor bike and doing high speed wheelies on the video-sharing website last August whist doing a search for Banbury.
Lumb followed up the clip with a story on dangerous driving, with quotes from the police and a mother he had previously interviewed who has lost three children in separate road accidents.
Thanks to the Guardian’s tip off police arrested Ferenci and he was jailed at Oxford Crown Court on Monday with the YouTube video providing crucial evidence in court. He will serve two 12-week sentences after admitting two counts of dangerous driving, to run concurrently, has been disqualified from driving for two years and will have to re-take his test.
Judge Terence Maher said: ‘It may be true that you posted the main danger to yourself but there was a danger, also, to other road users. There was a story in the Banbury Guardian and that caused you to reflect on what can happen.”
After the court case, PC Richard Medway, said: “The Banbury Guardian highlighted the situation and brought the issue to the fore. Had it not been for the article we probably would have linked the cases eventually but this certainly helped.”
Deputy editor of the Banbury Guardian, Simon Williams, said: ‘It’s pleasing that sometimes we can have an effect. It’s clearly dangerous driving. From David’s point of view, he’s a trainee reporter, and it typifies the tenacity and initiative we’ve come to expect of him. We hope that stands him in good stead for his NCE next month. It’s also important that we had an impact on the biker himself – party because of our story he’s been forced to reconsider his actions.”
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