A wealthy Indian-origin businessman has been jailed for 22 months for crashing his luxury sports car into a 68-year-old war veteran on the streets of London and then fleeing the scene in November last year. Ravi Ruparelia, 30, who runs a successful hotel and catering business in London, lost control of his McLaren 540C Coup in Park Lane area, jumped a red light and hit Anthony Davis who was waiting to cross the road at a junction.
The victim was knocked unconscious and left with a broken leg in the crash. Ruparelia pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and failing to stop after an accident. Judge Martin Beddoe, at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court in London, said Ruparelia's decision to flee was "almost as bad and as callous an example of that as one could contemplate," the Evening Standard reported.
"There has been nothing to prevent him (Ruparelia) since the accident contacting the victim and saying how sorry he was," the judge added. The court was told that Davis had been on his way to a Remembrance Day parade in Whitehall, held annually to honour the war dead, when the crash happened on November 12, 2017. He was left temporarily wheelchair-bound and unable to work as a security guard.
Besides a 22-month jail sentence, Ruparelia has also been banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay 5,000 pounds as compensation to the victim. Prosecutor Carol Summers said Davis had stopped for the light to turn green but "heard a high-speed racing car coming in his direction".
"He could hear the engine revving and said it was going really fast," Summers said. Davis decided not to cross the road even though the light turned green. But the next thing he knew he was on the ground surrounded by paramedics and police, she said. CCTV showed Ruparelia looking towards the victim, before pulling his hood over his head and fleeing.
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