A Yorkshire garden centre manager has described as "a joke" a sentence handed out to a thief who ran over his pensioner grandfather in his car whilst trying to make a getaway.
Christopher Ogley, 43, escaped a jail sentence because of his problems with heroin addiction and because the injuries sustained by 76-year-old Roger Pell, who founded the garden centre but is now retired, were not severe.

Ogley stole vases worth £73 from Spring Green Nurseries in Wakefield in August. But as he tried to flee from the car park he was confronted by Roger and his 25-year-old grandson, centre manager Jonathan Pell.

Ogley then knocked Roger down with his car and reversed over him, leaving him with severe bruising and a broken finger. Jonathan repeatedly punched Ogley in the face through the car window to try to stop him, but he got away after having smashed into another car in the car park.

Ogley admitted assault, dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident and theft when he appeared at Wakefield Magistrates Court last month. The case was then committed to Leeds Crown Court after the district judge said her powers of punishment were inadequate.

However, Ogley avoided a custodial sentence at Leeds, receiving instead a two-year community order and a one-year driving ban. The court was told that Ogley had a number of problems and had stolen the vases to pay for heroin.

Judge Peter Collier QC also said: "It is through good fortune [Roger Pell] didn't suffer serious injuries - if there had been, you would have gone to prison for a long time."

But Jonathan Pell told diyweek.net: "It seems like a joke, it doesn't send out a very good message. The judge's words were that because of the underlying problems he had, that was taken into account and so he was not given a severer punishment.

"It seems very frustrating and it angers me that if it was a hardworking member of society who'd never been in trouble before the punishment would have been a lot greater.

"And the injuries sustained weren't severe enough for a prison sentence. Well, for me, if you attempted to murder someone it's as good as murdering someone. Luckily, my grandfather wasn't hurt as badly as he could have been."

He said that Roger Pell was now recovering. "But there are still things he can't do. He can't drive at the moment because he's got a broken finger, and he's still going for physio every week. It's certainly slowed him down a bit."