A Church of England priest is facing the end of his career after crashing his bishop's £50,000 car while drunk. Father Sion Hughes Carew, 40, was arrested at the scene in Lincoln after the Kia Sportage he was driving ended up wrecked on the pavement against a garden wall.
The crash involved a Skoda Octavia belonging to Brian Meagher, partner of actress Heather Bell, who has played Clarrie Grundy on Radio 4's The Archers for over four decades. Ms Bell, 81, joked: 'It's the story of the actress and the bishop.'
Hughes Carew, a classics graduate with a Master's in Canon Law, had been socialising at the Bishop's Palace on his birthday before the incident. He crashed twice into the parked Skoda about half a mile from Lincoln Cathedral. At Lincoln Magistrates' Court on October 30, he pleaded guilty to drink driving with almost three times the legal limit.
He was fined £873, ordered to pay £434 in costs and fees, and given a two-year driving ban. The Church of England confirmed the bishop did not know his car had been taken and had not given permission for it to be driven. Hughes Carew is now on leave and faces possible disciplinary action, including being defrocked.
