A vicar who caused carnage in his bishop’s car while three times over the drink-drive limit has been let off by a clergy disciplinary panel.
The Daily Mail revealed in November that Father Sion Hughes Carew, 40, had spent an evening drinking with the Bishop of Lincoln Stephen Conway at his palace before driving off barefoot.
But just half a mile from Lincoln Cathedral, at about 11pm, he crashed into a parked Skoda Octavia owned by the partner of an Archers actress, before pulling off and hitting it for a second time.
Fr Carew then drove the one-year-old £48,000 Kia Sportage up a steep hill and, after appearing to stall, rolled backwards into a garden wall and railings, in a chaotic episode that has earned him the nickname the Vicar of Tiddly.
Carpenter Brian Meagher, 78, whose car was written off by Fr Carew’s accident, is the partner of actress Heather Bell, who has played Clarrie Grundy on the Radio 4 soap opera since 1979.
When police arrived at the scene, which was just a five-minute walk from Fr Carew’s vicarage, they handcuffed and arrested the barefoot vicar, who was wearing a tank top, and took him to the cells for the night – all in front of his parishioners.
At Lincoln Magistrates’ Court Fr Carew admitted driving the bishop’s car while almost three times over the alcohol limit.
He was banned from driving for two years – with a six-month reduction if he completes a safe-driving course – and fined £873.
Father Sion Hughes Carew (left) drove off barefoot in a tank top and drunk in the Bishop of Lincoln Stephen Conway’s car, causing carnage. He has been let off by the church however after facing being defrocked
Fr Carew rolled the bishop’s £48,000 Kia back into a garden wall and railings, the chaotic spree earning him the nickname the Vicar of Tiddly
The Lincoln diocese said Bishop Conway had been unaware the vicar had driven off in his car.
Only now has it emerged that in January a Church of England panel found Fr Carew had engaged in ‘conduct unbecoming and inappropriate to the office and work of a clerk in Holy Orders’.
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He was, however, let off with a ‘rebuke and injunction’. A Church spokesman said he remained a vicar.
Fr Carew in February stepped away from his roles at All Saints, Lincoln, and as priest-in-charge of the nearby Norman church St Mary-le-Wigford, telling parishioners he was ‘deeply sorry’.
Fr Carew added: ‘Many of you will know that, in the months leading up to that evening, I had been under a great deal of stress and struggling with depression.
‘While this does not in any way excuse my actions, it does form part of the context within which they occurred.’
A source at the Diocese of Lincoln said Fr Carew, who had previously worked in the C of E’s legal department, ‘has not resigned and is currently on leave due to personal reasons’.
The source added that the bishop’s car had been repaired.
Fr Carew crashed into a parked Skoda Octavia owned by the partner of an Archers actress before pulling off and hitting it a second time, writing off the car
Fr Carew said he was ‘deeply sorry’ and suffering from depression at the time. He stepped away from his role and was handed a two year driving ban and an £873
The bishop has since been arrested as part of an investigation following an allegation that a man was sexually assaulted between 2018 and 2025.
He is suspended from office while the police inquiry continues.
