Man guilty of putting 13 in Volvo

LLANDUDNO, England, June 25 (UPI) -- An English schoolteacher convicted of dangerous driving has found 13 is indeed an unlucky number when it refers to passengers in a Volvo.

Abraham Gniwosch, 31, was found guilty of dangerous driving by Llandudno magistrates court for what a police officer described as a car "severely overloaded with children standing up in the rear." He had crammed two women with babies on their laps, seven other children and a man into his five-person Volvo S70 -- which is only meant to carry five people. None of the 12 passengers was wearing a seat belt, The Telegraph reported Wednesday.

Gniwosch denied he had been driving unsafely, noting he never went beyond 20 mph, carrying his extended family on an outing that ended quickly when children were frightened by a roaming dog.

"I've been silly in what I've done, but not dangerous," he said. "I'm not a quick driver, I'm a slow driver."

Gniwosch lost his driving privileges for a year and was ordered to pay over $1,773 in fines and costs.