A Wigton danger-driver whose epileptic son was a passenger during a 120mph police chase has been locked up.
Dash-cam and an officer’s body-worn footage captured parts of the dramatic 10-minute pursuit in and around the town just before 9pm on August 17 last year.
Despite sirens and blue lights being activated, 52-year-old Dodds did not stop the BMW. He failed to indicate at junctions, drove over zebra crossings, crossed on to the wrong side of the carriageway and at one stage mounted a kerb when faced with oncoming traffic on one town centre road.
Despite being cornered in a dead end, Dodds tried to flee but was he captured and later admitted four offences: dangerous driving, no insurance, drug-driving and driving while disqualified.
A judge at Carlisle Crown Court said today Dodds had careered through narrow streets with abandon, despite having been banned from getting behind the wheel a staggering 20-plus times before.
Giving mitigation at the sentencing hearing, Jeff Smith said Dodds had gone to collect his son, who had just suffered an “epileptic attack”. The defendant knew ,if given another chance, that custody would be a certainty for further misdemeanours.
Mr Smith conceded: “Brian Dodds also knows that he is probably the luckiest man that this court will encounter today because no one was injured or harmed by this driving last year,”
Jailing Dodds, of Infirmary Street, Carlisle, for 12 months, Judge Ian Unsworth QC said: “This was a shocking and terrifying piece of driving by you. Not only were you putting other road users at risk, there was the potential for pedestrians being injuries or killed by your actions.
“But you were also putting yourself at risk and, as it has transpired, your son, who was a passenger alongside you who was epileptic and, I am told, had just suffered an epileptic fit.
“That you would drive in such a way with your son by your side demonstrates a wholesale disregard for your welfare, which was reflected in your wholesale disregard for anyone who happened to be on the streets of Wigton at that time.”
Dodds was jailed for 12 months, must serve a five-year driving ban when released from prison and pass an extended driving test.
