Chase driver over cocaine limit
A MOTORIST who led police on a hair-raising high-speed chase through residential roads was found to be almost 10 times over the cocaine driving limit.
Alan Daniels – who only has an expired learner’s licence – raced through rush-hour streets in an attempt to get away from pursuing police.
The 43-year-old has more than 100 previous convictions on his record, including aggravated vehicle-taking and 17 for driving while disqualified. Sending Daniels to prison, a judge described his driving on the day in question as “appalling” and said due to his level of intoxication he “should not have been in charge of a hoop and stick, never mind a car”.
Swansea Crown Court heard that on the morning of August 6 last year an off-duty police officer in Port Talbot reported concerns about the manner in which a silver Ford Fiesta was being driven. Dean Pulling, prosecuting, said details of the vehicle were circulated to units on the ground, and at just before 9am a roads policing officer saw the vehicle on the roundabout by the town’s main bus station. The traffic cop signalled for the Ford to stop but instead it sped off and a 10-minute long highspeed pursuit ensued.
The Fiesta did a loop around the town centre before taking the A48 Pentyla-baglan Road out of Port Talbot. The court heard Daniels reached speeds in excess of 70mph as he raced through residential streets in Baglan, taking bends on the wrong side of the road, going the wrong way along oneway streets, swerving in and out of his lane, failing to stop at T-junctions, and forcing other vehicles to stop or take evasive action. At the end of Old Road he went the wrong way around the Briton Ferry roundabout before speeding through the back streets of Briton Ferry in a loop which brought him back to roundabout.
Mr Pulling said Daniels then went over the Briton Ferry bridge and tried to join the westbound M4 motorway – but the Fiesta suddenly lost power and began to slow down, whereupon the driver appeared to deliberately crash into the near-side barriers on the slip road. Daniels then got out of the car, jumped over the barrier, and tried to flee down a grassy verge. The pursuing officer gave chase on foot, and found him a short distance away stuck in bushes and undergrowth.
The court heard that Daniels’s speech was slurred and he appeared drowsy – a test for alcohol proved negative but a subsequent blood test found he was more than nine-and-ahalf times over the limit for benzoylecgonine, the substance formed in the body as it breaks down cocaine.
Alan Daniels, of Gwyn Street, Alltwen, Pontardawe, had previously pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, drug-driving, failing to stop for an officer, driving with no insurance, and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has 39 previous convictions for 105 offences, including burglaries, thefts, aggravated vehicle-taking, and 17 for driving while disqualified. The court heard he holds an expired provisional licence.
Hywel Davies, for Daniels, said his client suffered with a respiratory ailment, and was fearful of the consequences of contracting Covid in a custodial setting. He said the defendant had told him he had recently developed a stutter and a form of post-traumatic stress disorder while being held in prison on remand – though there was no medical evidence to back that up.
Judge Paul Thomas QC told Daniels his record for driving while disqualified was as bad a one as he had ever seen, and he said the defendant’s driving on the day in question “can only be described as appalling”.
He told him: “You were nearly 10 times the cocaine limit. You should not have been in charge of a hoop and stick, never mind a car. You were driving that car dangerously at a time when you were not in full control of yourself, never mind of the vehicle.”
Giving the defendant a one-quarter discount for his guilty pleas the judge sentenced him to 15 months in prison comprising 15 months for dangerous driving and three months for drugdriving to run concurrently. No separate penalties were imposed for the other offences.
Daniels was banned from driving for three years, and must must past an extended test before he can get a full licence.