A disqualified driver caught behind the wheel after acting suspiciously during eye-to-eye contact with police in a passing vehicle has been handed another ban.
Aaron Gawthrop, 31, was initially handed an 18-month ban for drug-driving in June 2021. But on September 13 last year he was spotted in control of a Mercedes on Crown Street, off Carlisle’s Botchergate.
A PC on duty with a colleague was in a patrol vehicle moving in one direction one way and saw an oncoming Mercedes travelling in similarly slow-moving traffic.
“He (the officer) recognised the defendant and made eye contact,” prosecutor George Shelley told city magistrates. “He appeared to try and hide his face. This raised suspicions.”
A police national computer check showed Gawthrop, of Oakleigh Way, was banned until December 2022; in addition he was not covered by insurance for the vehicle, which had later been found inside a locked compound.
Gawthrop had pleaded not guilty to driving while disqualified and having no insurance but was convicted following a magistrates’ court trial.
He was sentenced today when magistrates imposed a community order comprising a rehabilitation requirement, along with a three-month driving ban. Gawthrop was also left with a financial bill totalling £824.
