An elderly man has been jailed for nine months after becoming a gang member because he was lonely and desperately wanted someone to talk to.
81-year-old Ian Hemmens took on the job of a driver to spend more time socializing and less time at his home. However, he didn’t become an ordinary driver but a getaway driver for a drug lord.
While Ian was accused of taking part in several illegal rides, the prosecutors’ focus was on one particular getaway in which the drug dealer stabbed his rival before the pensioner took him off of the crime scene in his car.
Following the trial, the pensioner, who used to work as a van driver, was found guilty of assisting drug dealer and sentenced to 9 months in jail. As for his partners in crime, one managed to flee to Bahrain while the other one was sentenced to nine years in prison.
“You assisted an offender by driving him away from the scene when you knew he must have been involved in a serious assault, you saw blood on him and you undoubtedly knew that he had been involved in drug dealing,” Judge Hetherington told Ian according to The Independent.
“But your involvement was considerably more than this one journey, you made several journeys on that day and on the night before, you would have been aware that you were being used as a driver whose age and appearance would have been unlikely to draw attention.”
While Prosecutor Amy Packham claimed that Ian played a crucial role in the getaway following the attack, Mark Kessler, defending, suggested that the elderly man’s loneliness drove him to commit the acts.
“It’s unusual to find a man of Mr Hemmens’ background should be in court at his age for a matter of this nature, it’s very strange indeed,” Kessler argued.
“The defendant admits that he likes talking to people and that is why it has come about.”
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