Michelin-star chef who ran over intern twice avoids jail
ANTWERP: A Michelin-starred chef has been spared jail after running over his British intern twice after a staff party.
Nick Bril drove his Land Rover Defender, first backwards and then forwards, over Joe Claridge, who was lying on the ground in the private car park of The Jane, a two-star fine dining restaurant in Antwerp, Belgium.
The trainee’s injuries were so severe that both of his legs had to be amputated and he was left in a coma for 50 days after the collision on Jan 8 2024.
A court in Antwerp heard that Bril was heavily intoxicated and did nothing to help the sous chef for ten minutes. The emergency services were only alerted when a passing jogger urged him to call an ambulance at around 6am.
“I am not pretending to be an innocent person,” the Belgian chef told the court during his trial.
Prosecutors said he should have immediately called for help and provided information to the authorities sooner, which could have meant things turned out differently.
“Without the jogger, he would probably have gotten back into the car and driven away,” they added.
The court heard he remained “knowingly and wilfully” silent once police and paramedics arrived, and was therefore guilty of a form of hit-and-run.
“Usually, people are a chatterbox and can’t tell us enough, but with Nick Bril, we had to ask everything just to find something out,” paramedics told the court.
The court heard Bril “could not have foreseen the accident and did not intend the consequences”, but he was “seriously at fault due to his involvement, and by failing to provide necessary assistance”.
It was also “manifestly implausible” that Bril did not know he had run over Mr Claridge after the incident, the court heard.
However, Bril was acquitted of deliberately driving over Mr Claridge, who was 37 at the time, and instead found guilty of leaving the scene of an accident and failing to report it.
Bril was given a 12-month suspended sentence and fined just under £4,200 on Wednesday. The chef was banned from driving for four months and must retake his driving tests.
The judge said that compensation must be paid to Mr Claridge. It was symbolically set at one euro but the final amount will be determined at a later date.
“I can only imagine how the last few years have unfolded for him,” Bril had told the court earlier, saying he thought about the incident every day.
