Crash driver said he had been up drinking all night
A DRIVER cut up a fellow motorist on a busy dual carriageway before losing control and flipping over the central barrier.
Philip Jamesly’s Vauxhall ended up skidding along the road on its side towards oncoming traffic before righting itself.
Swansea Crown Court heard that a witness reported he “absolutely stank” of alcohol when he got out of his vehicle.
The crash happened just three months after the 34-year-old was given a suspended sentence for beating up his father and taking, and trashing, his car. He was also subject to a community order imposed by a judge in Plymouth for an assault on a nightclub bouncer.
Dean Pulling, prosecuting, said the incident happened at 9.45am on March 24 this year near the Jersey Marine roundabout on Fabian Way.
He said a woman driving out of Swansea who was stopped at the lights on the roundabout became aware of a Vauxhall Insignia car to her left which had stopped some way back from the line.
When the lights changed the Vauxhall accelerated past her and cut into her lane, nearly clipping her car, before speeding away.
The woman carried on her journey and came across the Vauxhall again a short distance along the dual carriageway, the other car seemingly having slowed down.
Mr Pulling said Jamesly’s car then suddenly veered to the right and collided with the central barrier before flipping over the barrier into the oncoming carriageway.
The car landed on its side and skidded along the road before falling back on to its wheels.
The prosecutor said the sudden swerving of the car in front of the woman caused her to brake sharply, and as a result her car veered to the left and mounted the kerb. Despite suffering injuries herself, the woman rang 999, then ran to help the defendant.
As she got to the crashed Vauxhall the defendant got out and “sank to his knees” on the road.
He told the woman his name was Phillip Morgan and that he had been drinking all night. Mr Pulling said she later said the defendant “absolutely stank” of alcohol.
Within minutes two police constables were on the scene, and they reported that Jamesly smelled of alcohol and was unsteady on his feet.
The defendant refused to take a breath test, saying he was injured.
He was initially arrested on suspicion of being unfit to drive through drink, and when paramedics arrived he was taken to Morriston Hospital.
While waiting to be seen in hospital the defendant produced a small clear bag from his trouser pocket and put it in his mouth – the PCS tried to stop him swallowing it but were unsuccessful.
The prosecutor said blood samples were taken and sent for analysis but the results would not be known for some time – he said tests for alcohol were taking three to four weeks to be completed at present, and tests for drugs some 12 to 14 weeks.
The driver Jamesly cut up on Fabian Way also went to hospital. She was found to have suffered fractured ribs, concussion, and a bruised collarbone.
The court heard police checks showed the defendant was a disqualified driver, and was on the road without insurance.
The car he was driving was a hire vehicle hired by Jamesly’s former partner, and legal proceedings against her are under way.
The defendant told officers he had gone to Swansea to get a Covid jab, and must have fallen asleep at the wheel.
Jamesly, formerly of Talbot Road, Port Talbot, but now of The Parade, Neath, had previously pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention, driving while disqualified, and driving without insurance when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
He has seven previous convictions for 11 offences, including drinkdriving, and driving while disqualified.
Last December he was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court to 52 weeks in prison, suspended for two years, for assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and aggravated vehicle taking. This conviction related to an incident where he repeatedly punched his father in the face while his dad was driving the pair in his car.
When the father stopped the car and got out Jamesly drove away. The car was later found abandoned and was so badly damaged the insurance company wrote it off.
The Fabian Way crash put the defendant in breach of that suspended sentence, as well as in breach of a community order imposed at Plymouth Crown Court in August 2020 for assault occasioning actual bodily harm relating to Jamesly’s part in a violent disturbance outside a club during which he punched a member of door staff in the face and knocked out several of his teeth.
Defending, David Singh said Jamesly accepted that the courts had given him two opportunities in 2020 to maintain his liberty, and there was nobody to blame but himself for his current predicament.
He said that Jamesly ran a successful construction business which employed three people.
Judge Geraint Walters told the defendant he had “plainly taken something” prior to driving, and that as a banned driver he had had no right to even be on the roads.
Giving him a one-third discount for his guilty pleas, the judge sentenced him to 12 weeks in jail for driving while disqualified, and banned him from driving for a further year.
The judge activated the full 52-week sentence to run consecutively with the 12 weeks, making an overall sentence of 64 weeks.