An uninsured driver who switched off his lights while speeding away from one police car during a night time chase before colliding with a second patrol vehicle has been sentenced by a judge.
Adrian Isaac Blair, 43, was first seen behind the wheel of a Ford Mondeo, at 11.30pm on August 26 last year, on Brayton Road in Aspatria.
After a computer check showed the only insured driver of the car was a female, police illuminated lights and indicated that Blair should pull over.
But he responded by driving off at excessive speed, turned off his car lights and gave that patrol car the slip.
Officers in a second police vehicle then saw Blair on the B5301. But he drove into collision with that, knocking off a wing mirror before once again motoring away at speed.
Blair fled through the address of a friend who was mistakenly arrested after a police dog picked up the scent, but handed himself in at a station the next morning. He stated: “You’ve got my mate under arrest but it wasn’t him. It was me.”
Blair admitted dangerous driving, had described acting out of “panic” and was sentenced this morning at Carlisle Crown Court.
Paul Tweddle, defending, said of his criminal conduct: “It was a foolish decision in the extreme. Whatever went through his mind was illogical.”
The married father-of-two was deemed “dependable, professional and responsible” by his employer although the court heard he had two previous convictions – for taking a vehicle without consent in 1997 and drink-driving in 2018.
After hearing mitigation, Judge Nicholas Barker suspended a six-month jail term for two years, and ordered Blair, of Meadow Road, Wigton, to complete a rehabilitation requirement and 180 hours’ unpaid work. He was also banned from driving for 21 months and must take an extended re-test.
Judge Barker told Blair he had put other road users, including police officers, at “serious risk”, adding: “At 43 years of age, the father of two young children, you acted in a stupid and idiotic way.”
