M62 CRASH DRIVER FLED AT 120MPH
JUDGE SAYS JAKE VESEY COULD HAVE KILLED ‘A LARGE NUMBER OF PEOPLE’ IN 7AM SMASH
A CAREER criminal who was on licence for robbery ‘could have killed a large number of people’ when he fled from police at speeds of 120mph on the M62.
Banned driver Jake Vesey, 26, caused a multi-vehicle smash at Ainley Top as the 7am police pursuit came to an end.
Vesey lost control of the stolen VW Golf as he tried to get off the busy motorway via the slip road at Junction 24.
Prosecutor Philip Adams told a judge at Bradford Crown Court that Vesey, who was still on prison licence following his release from an eightyear jail term for robbery, was seen weaving from lane to lane and undertaking other motorists on the motorway.
“When he came across slow-moving traffic across all four lanes he moved to his nearside onto the hard shoulder and at speeds of 90mph carried on for several hundred yards before removing the carriageway,” said Mr Adams.
“Other drivers were aware of his presence and were reacting to it. While he was in lane four the defendant reached a speed in excess of 120mph.”
Mr Adams said as he went down the slip road Vesey’s lost control of the Golf and went onto the opposite carriageway colliding with three other vehicles.
“There was significant damage to all of the vehicles thought fortunately only minor injuries to the occupants,” he added.
Vesey was arrested from the driver’s seat of the Golf and admitted at the police station that he was disqualified from driving and had no insurance.
The court heard that Vesey had 34 convictions on his record for over 70 offences and he had now been recalled to prison in respect of his eight-year robbery sentence.
He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving he while banned and driving without insurance and was jailed for 18 months.
Back in January Vesey and an accomplice were caught in another car near Manchester Airport with two 50-litre drums of stolen diesel in the boot.
The Recorder of Bradford Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC sentenced Vesey to an additional six months for the theft of the diesel and going equipped for theft.
Vesey was also banned from driving for three years.
The judge said people in this area were used to offences of dangerous driving but this one “almost beats everything.”
“You could have easily have killed a large number of people,” he told Vesey, of Wythenshawe Road, Wythenshawe,.
Barrister Harriet Tighe, for Vesey, said her client had described feeling disgusted with himself and he knew how atrocious his driving was on that day.
She said he had panicked when he was spotted by the police and didn’t think of the potential consequences.
“He expresses his remorse for his awful driving on that day,” she added.