He used a homemade explosive to destroy the camera, also damaging a child’s bedroom and ‘ripping through’ a car in the blast
A 64-year-old man has been jailed for 16 years for blowing up a ULEZ camera. Kevin Rees, 64, destroyed the camera using a homemade explosive, which also damaged a child’s bedroom and “ripped through” a car.
A judge said during Rees’ sentencing at Old Bailey today (Friday, October 2) that “tragedy was averted by a matter of luck”.
Judge Anthony Bate said that, beyond Rees owning an old Jaguar car that might have infringed the ULEZ scheme, there was no evidence he had any other reason to oppose the cameras.
The retired electrical appliances engineer was a member of anti-ULEZ Facebook groups and had “a personal grievance” against the cameras, according to his lawyer, who added that he has been mentally unwell since his conviction.
In January, a jury found him guilty of causing an explosion likely to endanger life or cause serious injury to property, and three offences of possessing a prohibited weapon.
Rees, from Sidcup, has now been sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment for causing the explosion, made up of a 15 year custodial sentence with a further one year’s imprisonment on licence. He was also given concurrent three-year sentences for three weapons offences. He will be in his 70s by the time he is first considered for release from prison.
Sentencing him, Mr Bate said: “It was pure chance no one was killed or caused injury by this explosion.”
The judge added that there was a “terrorist connection” to the offence.
Prosecuting, Simon Denison KC told the court that on December 6 2023, at about 6.30pm, Rees placed a homemade explosive next to a ULEZ camera in Willersley Avenue, Sidcup. It was made from a metal cylinder filled with black explosive powder used in fireworks, and had a fuse which Rees lit before running away.
The camera had already been taken down earlier that day and disabled.
The prosecutor said: “There was a lot of vehicle traffic passing through, and people walking along pavements on both sides of the road. The explosion was of such force that it caused part of the box to be propelled a hundred metres away into part of a house on the adjacent road.”
Pieces of shrapnel also “ripped through” the passenger side of a car, and there was “damage to the window frame of a child’s bedroom that was 25 metres away”.
Mr Denison said: “People in the nearby houses said they felt their building shake. It was pure chance that no one was killed or caused serious injury. When his home was searched on December 18 2023, police found three homemade stun guns.”
Rees was a member of groups which campaigned against ULEZ cameras and which “encouraged their destruction”.
“He was plainly motivated to cause this explosion for the purpose of a political cause, the anti-ULEZ cause,” Mr Denison said.
Mr Denison said that Rees had a previous conviction for criminal damage and had been sent to jail for four years in 1998 for an offence of grievous bodily harm.
For the defence, Simon Ray said that Rees’s actions were a “wholly disproportionate reaction to what remains essentially a personal grievance against these cameras”, and the purpose of the explosion was to make the camera beyond repair.
Rees did not answer the court clerk at the beginning of the hearing when she asked him to confirm he was Kevin Rees. Mr Ray said he was “seriously unwell”, and had been in a psychiatric unit just this week.
“He is unwell, and I have very deep concerns about how that is to be dealt with if he is sent to prison today,” Mr Ray said.
Mr Ray said that he has a “severe form of functional neurological disorder”.
“This condition is real, and it is one which has effectively ruined Mr Rees’s life. He is existing, but not really living. That has been the case, certainly since his conviction in January,” he said.
Mr Ray added that there was a “very real threat and risk of self-harm, and, frankly, suicide”, and that he had been detained under the Mental Health Act earlier this year. He had “chronic stress-related suicidality”, Mr Ray said.
Mr Denison said: “The stress that led to the condition relates to these proceedings, specifically the prospect of a custodial sentence.”
Ultra-low emission zones (Ulez) require drivers to pay a daily charge based on the emissions from their vehicles. Cameras were repeatedly damaged after the Ulez area was expanded to cover all of London in 2023. The cameras allow Transport for London (TfL) to monitor the cars entering and exiting the zone.
There is an easy way to see more of MyLondon’s stories. Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives and top stories.
It’s quick, free and easy to do. Simply click here.
Got a story or a court case we should cover? Please email [email protected]
Sign up to our London Court & Crime newsletter for the latest major court updates and breaking news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up HERE
