A MOBILITY scooter driver has been jailed for using it to run over his ex-partner during a drunken argument on her driveway. 

Paul Pickering had drunk two bottles of vodka and had been thrown out of Dionne Titus’s home in Torquay when he drove at her as she handed him his belongings.

He broke one arm in two places and a bone in her foot as he twice drove over her before leaving her in agony on the ground and riding away on the scooter. 

She suffered complications to her injuries and spent 12 days in hospital and weeks with her arm in plaster. He was arrested by police on his way home. He used the scooter because he is disabled with arthritis.

Pickering, aged 51, of Warren Road, Torquay, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and was jailed for a year and seven months by Recorder Mr Richard Stead at Exeter Crown Court.

Mr Jason Beal, prosecuting, said Pickering and 53-year-old Ms Titus had been together on and off for 20 years but were living apart at the time of the attack on July 27 last year because she could not cope with his alcoholism.

She had allowed him to visit for the weekend but they had a row the night before which resumed as he consumed two bottles of vodka. It ended with her asking him to go taking some of his belongings to the driveway where he got on the scooter.

Mr Beale said: “She gave him the belongings and he called her a bitch and drove at her, hitting her and forcing her to the ground in front of the scooter. He drove it and one wheel went over her right arm. She said he knew she was there.

“Pickering looked at her and moved forward again over her right foot and ankle before he stopped the scooter and said ‘I’m sorry’. He got off and tried to move her but when he was unable to do so, he got back on and drove off.”

 Mr Nigel Wraith, defending, said Pickering regrets his behaviour and is now keep to get help for a serious and long standing alcohol addiction.