Two officers had to leap out of path of danger driver’s van

HE CRASHED INTO TAXI AND THEN REFUSED BREATH TEST

TWO police officers “rapidly” jumped to safety to avoid a dangerous driver’s van before it crashed into a taxi, a court heard.

Callum Kiffin ignored both officers standing in the road, directing contraflow traffic ahead of a lane closure on the A47.

After the collision, he drove off towards Leicester until he stopped on the outskirts of the city, near Downing Drive.

An officer smelled alcohol on him, but he claimed he had only had half a pint earlier in the day, and refused to give a sample of breath at the roadside or the police station.

Leicester Crown Court was told the 31-year-old father-of-three had a previous conviction for drink-driving.

Kiffin, of Woodpecker Close, Scraptoft, Leicester, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and failing to provide a specimen of breath, on Friday, September 4.

Luc Chignell, prosecuting, said the incident, at 11pm, was on the stretch between Bushby and Houghton on the Hill, with the flow of traffic reduced to one lane and traffic alternately being allowed through in either direction.

He said: “The first officer who tried to stop the defendant was put at risk because he stepped into the road and then had to take evasive action.

“When a second officer tried to stop him the same thing happened and he drove on.”

The van was confronted by an oncoming taxi, blocking the single lane.

In trying to move around the cab, Kiffin’s van collided with the back of it, ripping off the taxi’s rear bumper.

Sentencing, Judge Philip Head said the defendant had “endangered” the lives of both officers who had to “rapidly move out of the way” of his van.

He said: “In 2017 you were convicted of driving after consuming excess alcohol and whilst using a mobile phone and were disqualified from driving for a year.

“In September last year you were lawfully back in possession of your licence, but would have had the clearest possible warning about breaking the law regarding motoring.”

He said that after failing to stop for the officers: “You clearly should have stopped after colliding with the taxi you must have known you’d done several things that were criminal and dangerous.

“You continued for a mile or two until you were stopped by a police vehicle.

“Even then your behaviour didn’t change.

“We’ll never know what your true alcohol level was.”

‘NO EXCUSE’

The judge said that if Kiffin had, as he claimed, only consumed half a pint of lager earlier in the day there was “no conceivable or valid reason” for refusing a breath test.

Vasanti Vaitha, mitigating, said: “He concedes there’s no excuse for his behaviour.”

She said he no longer stood by his earlier claim to a probation officer, who prepared his pre-sentence report, that he only refused the breath tests due to health concerns about Covid-19.

Miss Vaitha said: “The road closure didn’t immediately become apparent to him.

“He’d been at a meeting earlier that day and consumed some alcohol, a half pint of lager, and in his mind he was under the legal limit.”

She said the loss of his driving licence would adversely affect Kiffin’s selfemployed work in the construction industry.

He was jailed for 12 months and banned from driving for three-and-ahalf years.