Dangerous driver banned for 'showing off' at car meet

A dangerous driver who was filmed ‘showing off’ and drifting on public roads and car parks has today been banned from the roads.

Several video clips show Pawel Maria Abratanski putting lives at risk by drifting through crowds of people and around roundabouts in ‘an embarrassing display of recklessness and stupidity’.

The 34-year-old of Alexandra Road in Southampton was sentenced today (26 January) at Southampton Magistrates Court after previously pleading guilty to four counts of dangerous driving.

The court heard Abratanski was identified as being the driver in multiple dangerous driving incidents last year, including one at a car meet in the car park of Asda in Havant on 4 May.

Videos taken at that event show Abratanski drifting through the middle of a large crowd, in a 24-hour car park accessible to members of the public.

Similar clips on the defendant’s phone showed him drifting and driving dangerously at Tollgate in Eastleigh on 17 August. While further video evidence showed more offences at Blackbushe Business Park in Yateley on 6 December and on Parkway in Whiteley on 15 December.

Abratanski was also sentenced for failing to identify the drivers of two other vehicles as part of our investigations into these car meets, and for using a vehicle in a dangerous condition which was likely to cause injury due to a number of serious defects identified on his Nissan Silvia.

Today he was banned from driving for two years, with an extended retest required before he can get behind the wheel again. He was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and a deprivation order was granted, meaning police have now seized his vehicle and it will be crushed.

He was also handed a sentence of eight months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months.

Police Sergeant James Hall, of the Roads Policing Unit, said: “All these videos show a pattern of behaviour where the defendant was showing off and repeatedly putting bystanders and other motorists at serious risk of injury or worse.

“In these clips you can see people stood around and watching, just inches away from the cars at some points.

“All it takes is for the driver to lose control for a split second and they could crash into the spectators, so please don’t attend these car meets even just to watch.

“These clips show an embarrassing display of recklessness and stupidity by the defendant and he has now been apprehended before his actions could cause any injuries or fatalities.”