Just Stop Oil protesters guilty after latex poured on Tesla robot

Two Just Stop Oil protesters have been found guilty of criminal damage after they poured orange liquid latex over a dummy robot at a Tesla store in west London.

Nigel Fleming, 64, and Catherine Nash, 75, caused £21.78 of criminal damage after pouring the liquid over a mannequin Optimus robot at the Westfield Tesla store in Shepherd’s Bush on March 12.

They walked into the shop at about 10.15am, untied a banner, made political statements about Tesla owner Elon Musk, and stood around before the police arrived, London’s Westminster Magistrates Court heard.

District judge Louisa Cieciora imposed a month-long conditional discharge on each of the climate activists after finding them guilty after a trial on Wednesday.

Fleming, of Worcester Crescent, London, a retired tax adviser who coaches chess on Thursdays, and Nash, a retired teacher of Castle Green Close, Kendal, Cumbria, will have to split the compensation costs of £21.78 and each will have to pay a £26 victim surcharge.

The shop was shut for 45 minutes and reopened without the  humanoid model Tesla Bot, which had to be cleaned.

In evidence Fleming said they had been careful about choosing the target, preparing the liquid and limiting the possible impact, which is why they were surprised when an earlier charge put the potential damage caused at £2,696.40.

This was amended to £21.78 before Wednesday’s trial and covers the cost of having to clean the Tesla Optimus robot mannequin.

The judge told the defendants, who represented themselves in court, that despite the care they took in choosing their target they had still caused damage to private property.

She said: “There is no dispute that both of you poured latex over the robot and the latex had to be removed.”

She described the cleaning cost as “incredibly low and reasonable” and that an employee had to clean it and “the value is calculated in terms of their time and nothing else”.

She said: “Latex was poured on the robot. It had to be removed from the robot and there was temporary impairment of usefulness.”

She added: “You both of you poured the latex on the mannequin knowing it would have to be removed somehow, for however long that took someone, whether it is for a matter of minutes.”

Pc Jan-Vardis Reddi, who arrested, handcuffed and took Fleming to Hammersmith police station, west London, told the court: “On the robot, I believe on the left hand side from the head down to the shoulder, was an orange liquid substance.”

Pc Jack Hill, who arrested Nash at the scene, said that when he arrived “I could see it was a peaceful protest following criminal damage”, as the protesters were standing in front of the robot model.

Fleming said he and Nash both poured half a cup of thickened latex over the model robot.

He said: “I talked about what we were doing. I talked about Musk’s Nazi salutes. We undid a banner and stood around and then the overreaction started.”

Nash said the Tesla Bot was chosen because Mr Musk had “influence in US politics” at the time and the protest was because “my grandchildren and other children are at stake as we hurtle towards climate collapse”.