Mechanic jailed for prank that poisoned workmate

A MECHANIC was jailed for 15 months yesterday after spiking a workmate’s drink to “teach him a lesson” in a prank which left the father-of-two blind and deaf.

Keith Lamb, 45, put antifreeze in a bottle of cola following a row with Martin Bingley at Alwoodley Motors in Leeds, West Yorkshire.

The judge, Mr Justice Smith, jailed Lamb for 15 months yesterday at Sheffield Crown Court after he pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing a poison to be taken so as to inflict grievous bodily harm.

Mr Justice Smith told Lamb, who sat with his head bowed throughout the hearing, that he accepted the defendant never intended to cause Mr Bingley’s injuries and that he regretted that only a sentence of imprisonment was suitable.

Mr Justice Smith told Lamb that Mr Bingley’s wife and young daughters face the consequences of this tragedy every day.

He said: “Nothing the court can do and nothing you can do can undo the past.”

The judge told Lamb that he accepted that the worst he thought might happen was that Mr Bingley may swallow a small amount of the antifreeze.

The judge said: “You thought it was a prank and a harmless joke and it never crossed your mind how dangerous it was.

“I’m convinced having seen you on several different hearings your remorse is genuine and deep. With regret, I must sentence you to imprisonment.”

The court heard Lamb, of High Ash Crescent, Moortown, Leeds, spiked the two-litre bottle of cola as a prank because he was fed up with Mr Bingley drinking straight from the bottle which belonged to other people.

Mr Bingley did not realise he had drunk the sweet-tasting chemical and even when he became ill Lamb did not reveal what he had done until it was too late to administer an antidote.

Timothy Stead, prosecuting, said Mr Bingley suffered acute renal failure and still needs dialysis.

He said: “He’s completely blind, deaf and although there is some residual hearing in one ear it’s so poor it’s unlikely he will ever be able to hear a conversation.”