SCF Tip: What's Said During a Lap Dance Doesn't Always Stay in the Lap

Thanks to SCF Readers Sue & David for the tip on this story. I think we can confidently say that there are stupid criminals on the other side of the big pond too!

Courtesy of The Comet

A COMPANY director who caused a motorway pile-up fled the scene and drove to a lap dancing club.

There, Peter Aldred, 41, boasted to two pretty dancers how he had made off from the crash site leaving a dazed driver in the middle of the carriageway.

The dancers, Nikki Wright, 23, and her friend Zoe Young, 27, were so appalled by Aldred's drunken boasts that they decided to shop him.

As Zoe performed a £60 "VIP dance" for Aldred "to keep him occupied", Nikki alerted the management at the Spearmint Rhino Club in Slough who contacted the police.

Aldred was still standing at the bar a short while later when police burst in and arrested him.

The story was revealed when Aldred appeared at St Albans Crown Court on Tuesday to admit a charge of dangerous driving.

The company executive, of Oakfield Avenue, Hitchin, had been behind the wheel of his Subaru Impreza as he drove in the outside lane of the M25 in the early hours of March 22 last year.

Just before the junction with the M1, he was travelling at around 75mph when he lost control and hit a Smart Car in the middle lane that was being driven by bus driver Doug Saker.

The impact sent Mr Saker's vehicle veering sideways into a lorry in the inside lane.

The collision left Mr Saker's vehicle a mangled write-off and he ended up dazed and confused on the hard shoulder.

The lorry also came to a halt, but Aldred, after stopping briefly in the central lane, drove off suddenly as Mr Saker walked up to the car.

Barrister Charles Judge, defending, said his client had been driving when he dropped a sandwich he had been eating and, in trying to pick it up, had collided with Mr Saker's vehicle.

Judge Marie Catterson decided to adjourn the case for three weeks so that a pre-sentence report on Aldred can be prepared.

She told Aldred: "All options are open to this case."

She said the fact that she was granting him bail to the next appearance "doesn't mean anything as far as sentence is concerned".

Outside the court, Mr Saker said: "I couldn't believe my eyes when it (the Subaru) drove off. It was such a despicable thing to do.

"I could have been badly injured, but he didn't know that. I remember thinking, 'You b.....d'."

Lap dancer Zoe said: "He came in (to the club) and it was obvious he had been drinking. He stank of car fumes and alcohol and he told us what had happened.

"It was like he was boasting because he said his car had been in an accident and he was doing about 150mph."

Her friend Nikki said: "He didn't seem at all sorry. All he was concerned about was getting another drink. But the club wouldn't serve him."

On an internet site, Aldred is shown as being the chief executive officer with EthosWorld which is in Hitchin and sells healthy lifestyle products.

Aldred was involved in an incident shortly before Christmas when he sparked off a bomb scare on board an easyJet plane at Inverness Airport.

Refusing to put a package in an overhead locker, Aldred told cabin crew it was a bomb, but police later found two soft Nessie toys and sweets instead.

Aldred pleaded guilty to charges of acting in a disorderly manner stating he had a bomb in his possession in circumstances that were likely to place passengers and crew in a state of fear and alarm, and committing a breach of the peace.

Last week he appeared for a second time at Inverness Sheriff's Court where procurator fiscal Fiona Murray told the court the stunt had cost the airline £25,000.

Aldred will return to the court on February 21 where the sheriff will listen to reports on the businessman before he passes sentence.