A man who drove at 80 mph in a bid to get away from pursuing police officers has been jailed at Lincoln Crown Court.
Albert Lee, who did not have a full licence and had never had any driving lessons, attracted the attention of officers when his car was flagged up as uninsured as he drove along the A17 at Sutton Bridge.
Phil Howes, prosecuting, said “They followed his car onto a roundabout at Broadgate, Gedney where the officers activated their blue light to stop the vehicle. It accelerated away and so began a pursuit that lasted eight or nine minutes.”
Lee drove back on to the A17 going the wrong way along a stretch of dual carriageway before turning off.
He reached 80 mph and then continued on to Washway Road and then on to Fleet Road.
The pursuit continued into Holbeach with Lee at one point driving at 70 mph in a 30 mph limit area.
Eventually Lee struck a kerb and his car ended up in a hedge. He was arrested nearby.
Mr Howes said Lee gave a negative breath test but a drugs test showed he was seven times over the legal limit of cocaine.
“He said he had the cocaine the previous day. He said he panicked when he saw the blue lights. He conceded he had never had any driving lessons and said he had bought the car a few days earlier.”
Lee, 20, of Jarvis Gate, Sutton St James, admitted charges of dangerous driving, driving over the drug limit, driving otherwise in accordance with his licence and driving without insurance as a result of the incident in the early hours of 7 April this year.
He was jailed for eight months and banned from driving for two and a half years.
Judge Steven Coupland, passing sentence, told him “You made some incredibly dangerous manouvres. It is a miracle that anybody was not hurt by your car. It is a miracle that serious injury and death did not result. I have come to the conclusion that it has to be an immediate sentence of custody.”
Neil Sands, in mitigation, urged that any prison sentence should be suspended and told the court “This is a very, very contrite young man. It has left him extremely shaken.
“He has fully accepted what he did and has not sought to minimise it.”
