Fife man admits deliberate hit-and-run outside pub
A driver accelerated his car at high speed hitting a man outside a Fife pub then drove off.
The victim was sent flying over the bonnet, hitting the windscreen and falling on to the road. His life was endangered by the deliberate collision.
Ian Walle (36), of Groban, Leven, has appeared in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court following the incident.
He admitted that on 13th May last year at Methil Brae, Methil, he assaulted a man by driving a car at him whereby he was struck, went on to the bonnet and fell to the ground, all to his injury and to the danger of his life.
The incident occurred outside the Kirkland Bar where both men had been earlier. The court heard the background was a dispute between Walle and the man’s son over an alleged debt.
Depute fiscal Sarah Lumsden said victim had been in the pub with friends on the night of the incident.
Another customer was outside having cigarette and saw Walle, who had been in the bar earlier, in a grey BMW parked across the road.
Walle then asked this man to go into the bar and pass on a message to the victim for him to go outside.
“The accused then accelerated away with his tyres screeching,” said the depute.
He drove along the road then stopped and turned so that he was facing towards then bar.
He then “drove at high speed with no effort to slow down” towards the man who was standing on the road outside the bar by this time.
He was “thrown on to the bonnet and rolled off on to the road. The car had a cracked windscreen and the accused drove off,” added Ms Lumsden.
The incident was captured on CCTV the court was told.
The police were called and the victim was on his feet outside the bar when the officers arrived.
Officers later saw the BMW on fire in another part of Methil. The fire service had been called to the scene.
The victim sustained a grazed shoulder and a bump to the head. He was treated by paramedics but did not have to attend hospital.
Defence solicitor Gordon Martin said his client’s position was that he had been assaulted in the pub toilet by the person he later struck with the car.
He added that Walle could not explain why he then acted in the way he did afterwards.
“He accepts that both he and the complainer are fortunate that the injuries suffered were fairly minor,” added Mr Martin.
The court was told that Walle is already on a community payback order.
Sheriff Charles MacNair called for reports. He said he was granting bail “with some hesitation” and Walle will be sentenced on 12th March.
The sheriff said the CCTV of the incident should be made available to be shown before the sentencing.
