90-year-old pleads guilty to assault after felling elderly neighbour with mobility scooter
A 90-year-old Rosebud man who deliberately swerved his mobility scooter into his neighbour of 20 years, mowing him down, told police that while they were both old men, they acted “like 16-year-olds”.
South East
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An old man who ran over his elderly neighbour with his mobility scooter in a footpath fight has been given a good behaviour bond.
Frank Martin, 90, swerved his scooter into his neighbour, who is also aged 90, knocking him to the ground as they crossed paths near his Rosebud home.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of unlawful assault at Dromana Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
The court heard Martin was riding his mobility scooter along Point Nepean Rd in Rosebud about 10.15am on October 29 last year when he saw the other man walking towards him.
He then veered his vehicle into the victim, felling him and leaving him lying on the ground.
Martin leisurely scooted off while a good Samaritan who saw the injured man came and picked him up, escorting him to a nearby clinic for first aid.
The victim – his neighbour of 20 years who lived over the road – was not badly hurt in the footpath fracas.
Two days later police officers went to Martin’s home to have a chat with him regarding the assault.
He told them that they were both “bad-tempered and do silly things”.
He also said “even though we are both 90-year-olds, we act like 16-year-olds”, but denied he had unlawfully assaulted his neighbour.
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Martin’s lawyer said his client had never faced a court before, and this act was completely out of character.
He said he regretted the incident, and had believed they “ran into each other” and didn’t recall the other man falling to the ground.
He said he needed the motorised scooter due to a serious workplace accident in 1980 where he broke his neck and suffered nerve damage.
Magistrate Gerard Lethbridge said Martin shouldn’t have acted the way he did.
“You can’t go mowing people down on your scooter,” Mr Lethbridge said.
“You should have nothing further to do with him (the neighbour) for the next six months.”
Martin was placed on a six-month good behaviour bond, with no conviction recorded.