Learner driver terrorised examiner after test halted

Antony Kevin Alltree (25) was said to have terrorised John Williams and Kenneth Spencer, repeatedly swearing at them and refusing to calm down, Burnley magistrates heard.

The bench heard how Alltree lost his temper after he was stopped from going across a junction. Mr Williams, an experienced examiner with 10 years’ experience, had applied the brakes with the dual controls as he thought Alltree did not have time to get across safely.

The defendant, it was said, claimed the decision was “ridiculous” got out of the car and slammed the door shut. When instructor Mr Spencer got out and tried to calm Alltree down the defendant was alleged to have threatened: “All I have to do is make one phone call and you are both dead. I will kill you.”

The hearing was told Mr Williams was so shaken he could not carry out any more tests that day.

Alltree, a musician, admitted using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour. The defendant, of Eagle Street, Nelson, pleaded guilty claiming he did not make a death threat to the two men but made a threat of physical violence to the instructor. The court heard he told the police he said he would kick his head in. A trial of issue, over the facts of the case, will now be heard before Alltree is sentenced. He was given bail.

Prosecutor Mr Andrew Robinson told the hearing Mr Spencer had been teaching the defendant to drive for eight months and was in the vehicle when the test was taking place.

“The examiner says as the defendant approached the first of two roundabouts, he stopped at the junction to give way and then decided it was OK to set off. The examiner didn’t agree with the decision and he applied the brakes on the dual controls. Mr Alltree didn’t respond well to that and said there had been no need to do that as he had enough time.”

Mr Robinson went on: “The instructor got out to try and calm him down and the defendant told him ‘all I have to do is make one phone call and you are both dead. I will kill you’.

“The instructor got in the car and began to drive it back towards the test centre. Mr Alltree was chasing the car. They drove back and about 10 minutes later, he was there at the door again and they phoned the police.”

Mr Graeme Parkinson (defending) said the defendant had mental health difficulties and had been diagnosed with severe anxiety. He added: “He doesn’t accept that he said, at any stage ‘I’m going to kill you’. What he said was ‘I could make one phone call and I could get you done’.

“His intention was to speak to his mother in the hope that he could complain about the decision the examiner had made.”

Mr Parkinson said Alltree told the police he said he would kick his instructor’s head in. The solicitor added: “He made a threat of physical violence. When he was charged, he replied ‘I’m sorry’.

“He accepts he has kicked off, but he doesn’t accept he has at any stage, said ‘I’m going to kill you’.”