Follows a string of recent jail terms, ranging from four to eight months, for almost identical offenses
Two yobs who prevented an air ambulance from taking a dying man to hospital by dazzling the pilot with a laser pen walked free today.
Alex Cox and Luke Fortune, both 21, directed the green laser at the helicopter as the pilot desperately attempted to reach the critically-ill heart patient.
But after three attempts, the pilot had to give up and return to base in Devizes, Wiltshire.
Alex Cox and Luke Fortune, both 21, pleaded guilty to directing or shining a light at an aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot
The tragic pensioner, in his late 70s, had to be driven to hospital in a road ambulance but died en route.
Cox and Fortune pleaded guilty to directing or shining a light at an aircraft in flight so as to dazzle or distract the pilot - but walked free from court with a conditional discharge.
Their release follows a string of recent jail terms, ranging from four to eight months, for laser pen pests who committed almost identical offenses.
But Cox and Fortune were ordered to pay just £278 each in compensation and costs and handed a conditional discharge.
North West Wiltshire Magistrates’ Court in Chippenham heard how the incident happened at midnight on September 8 last year.
The pair, both from Chippenham, were at a friend’s house in nearby Calne when they began shining the laser out of a bedroom window.
They both admitted their involvement but each claimed the other was responsible for directing the beam at the helicopter.
Andrew Watts-Jones, defending talented local rugby player Cox, said it was his client’s laser pen but claimed it was Fortune pointing it at the aircraft.
He said: 'He had the laser pen and he and Mr Fortune had been mucking around with it that night.
'They had both been shining it out the window. At the time when the helicopter was present Alex Cox said he was not the person using the laser pen.
'They entered a conversation about whether or not it would reach as far as the helicopter. Alex thought it wouldn’t and Luke thought it would.'
He claimed Fortune, a local tree surgeon, shone it twice at the helicopter before Cox told him it wasn’t a good idea and they stopped.
Michael Jeary, defending Fortune, said it was Cox who had shone it at the helicopter.
Both said their clients accepted it was stupid and very dangerous and expressed remorse.
Their actions meant the patient required a 25-minute transfer to Great Western Hospital in Swindon by road instead of a ten-minute flight.
It was unlikely the helicopter would have saved the man who had suffered a cardiac arrest, the ambulance service said.
Magistrate Felicity Dowell told them: 'This was a very stupid, thoughtless thing to do.
'I am sure that you did not do it to make the helicopter crash but it would have had that effect.
'You are very lucky it wasn’t very serious. One of you plays rugby - imagine if you were lying on the field with a broken leg waiting for the air ambulance and someone did the same thing.'
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