A finance expert who crashed into a taxi, fracturing a passenger’s skull, following an all-day corporate drinking session at a Mayfair hotel was jailed for eight months on Friday.
Oxford-graduate Layton Tamberlin,32, who was over double the drink-drive limit wrestled with his blazing Audi as it careered at speed along a busy nighttime road, after writing-off the black cab.
Tamberlin, of Lancaster Stables, Lambolle Place, Hampstead, is an Investment Professional with TDR Capital – a top asset management firm – of 1 Stanhope Gate, Mayfair and holds fourteen Company Directorships and Secretarials.
Blackfriars Crown Court heard married Tamberlin – who studied mathematics at Oxford – and described as the moral compass of his ex-university chums – downed wine, cocktails and a martini in the Metropolitan Hotel bar.
He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol and failing to stop after an accident in Finchley Road, Hampstead on August 15, last year.
Father-of-one Tamberlin, whose wife is pregnant with their second child claims a boozy work colleague, later arrested after the collision for being drunk and disorderly, distracted him causing the crash.
Judge John Hillen told suited Tamberlin : “Your driving was quite terrifying. You had been drinking on and off from 1.30pm in the course of business entertainment and your friend was so drunk he was not acceptable into any taxi.
“You made a decision that was inexplicable, but it was made knowing what you had drunk. You are an intelligent man. You know the limits. You were twice the limit and drove that car for five miles.”
Prosecutor Miss Emma Jones told the court it was just after 9pm when taxi driver Sam Deering picked up Canadian tourist Funbi Taiwo,47, who suffered a fractured skull, bleeding around the brain a perforated eardrum and needed eight stitches to his forehead.
“The taxi driver suddenly heard a massive sound of crashing metal and was thrown forward in his seat and his taxi was shunted into a parked car.
“He saw a dark coloured Audi swerving from side to side with flames coming from the underside. It was making off at a fast speed,” she explained.
The victim had been entering the cab when it was struck from behind. “From getting in the next thing he remembers is lying on the ground bleeding from a head wound,” added Miss Jones.
The Audi S6 estate drove another 600 yards into Greenway Gardens where security guard Pushkar Gurling spotted it. “The car was all over the place and could have hit anyone it was being driven so eratically,” he told police.
The witness pulled the defendant out of the blazing vehicle along with colleague Max Herbertstein. “The passenger was so drunk he couldn’t stand up and then the car burst into flames,” said Miss Jones.
When quizzed by police first-time-offender Tamberlin claimed he hit a lamppost, and told officers he felt sober enough to drive. His breath test of 81 was over double the legal limit of 35.
Tamberlin hired Q.C. Patrick Gibbs in a bid to avoid prison. “He made two inexplicable decisions. The first was to drive and the second was not to stop after the accident.”
“He is a decision-maker which makes these decisions all the more odd. He is clearly a talented man who leads an industrious life and explodes it in forty-five minutes of madness on the Finchley Road,” added the Q.C., urging the Judge to suspend any jail term.
Judge Hillen told Tamberlin : You were distracted by your passenger which effectively led you to losing control of the car befuddled as you were by drink.
“You knew you had an accident and you knew your car was on fire. You were in Central London in a busy thoroughfare driving a vehicle that was ablaze.”
The Judge also jailed the defendant for three months for drink-driving, plus two months for failing to stop to run concurrently with the eight month sentence and disqualified him from driving for five years.
“You should be thoroughly ashamed of yourself. Up until now you have had an outstanding character and led an industrious life. You are highly intelligent and talented.
“The suffering you have brought to your wife, family and friends are at your door,” added the Judge.
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