Sheffield chef who offered lockdown meals has been overturned driving charges

A chef’s conviction for a motoring offense after delivering free food to people during the coronavirus lockdown has been overturned.

An appeal at Sheffield Crown Court heard that Robert Robinson was wrongly charged with using a motor vehicle without the correct insurance in 2021.

Mr Robinson, 39, claimed he was racially profiled by officers.

South Yorkshire Police said it did not record ethnicity data for traffic stops but was considering new trials.

Mr Robinson, who runs Sheffield-based company The Personal Chef, said he had been offering free meals to vulnerable people during the lockdown.

On one occasion, Jamaican-born Mr Robinson claimed he was stopped “aggressively” by Sheffield police, initially because he did not have a valid MOT certificate.

However, he was later accused of not having the correct car insurance to deliver food, which he disputed as he said he was not acting as a delivery driver but merely dropping off food for free.

Speaking to BBC Radio Sheffield, he said: “At the time I had around 20 tables in the front seat for someone to give them as a present because they had five children and were in an abusive relationship.

“I was doing something nice for someone and then I was told I was driving without the correct business insurance, even though my car was fully insured at the time.”

Mr Robinson said he subsequently spent three years fighting the conviction, which he said cost him £28,000 and resulted in six points on his license and higher insurance premiums.

During the trial, he said he tried to get body camera footage from police to help his case, but was told the footage was not available.

At Sheffield Crown Court on April 26, Mr Robinson had his conviction quashed.

He said he now plans to sue South Yorkshire Police for compensation, adding: “I lost a lot of money through insurance.

“I just want my money back and an apology because I shouldn’t have had to go through all this.”

A spokesman for South Yorkshire Police said it experienced a “significant and unexplained reduction in the data stored on our systems” in August 2023.

These included body-worn images recorded by officers between July 2020 and May 2023.

The spokesman said: “While we cannot confirm whether the body-worn video of the incident involving Mr Robinson is part of the affected data loss, this is a possible explanation as the video footage is not available and urgent work continues, driven by digital. forensic experts, to seek to recover data from body-worn video recordings.” The force’s spokesman said ethnicity was not currently recorded as part of traffic stops, but new processes were being considered.