Robert Davenport, 29, crashed his brother’s car into a tree after an 80mph police chase through residential streets at 3.55am on March 7. He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident, driving without insurance, and not having a full licence. He was jailed for a paltry 8 months, and banned from driving for 2 years.
During the chase, he committed all the usual offences his kind is famous for – hitting 80mph in a 30mph zone, and going the wrong way around bollards. His pathetic excuse was that “he panicked”. His defence lawyer said it was “a spur of the moment reaction”. The judge was surprised at what he heard:
Judge Richard Griffith-Jones exclaimed: “He’s not passed a test and he’s driving at 80 in a residential area!”
His defence further argued that he’d injured his back in the accident and had been unable to work, and that this also made him unsuitable for unpaid work – which his defence pushed for as a sentence anyway!
The judge wasn’t convinced:
Where someone like you, who has not even learned to drive properly, drives at 80 miles an hour along residential streets, even at that time of night, then you risk causing really serious or fatal injury.
I cannot overlook this; and you will get an immediate prison sentence.
It’s just a shame that he then lost touch with reality by passing such a ridiculously lenient sentence.