Guernsey Press

Police chased car at 60mph before it crashed into wall

A TEENAGER reached speeds of up to 60mph in an attempt to evade pursuing police cars.

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(Picture by Adrian Miller, 26912742)

The Magistrate’s Court was told that the high-speed chase ended when 18-year-old Kieran McEntee crashed his Honda Civic into a wall while driving against the one-way system in Belmont Road, St Peter Port.

McEntee, of Flat 2, Bruce Flats, 4, Bruce Lane, St Peter Port, admitted dangerous driving and failing to stop for police.

For dangerous driving, he was sentenced to the maximum of 180 hours of community service as a direct alternative to six months’ youth detention.

A probation order was imposed for 12 months and he was banned from driving for four years and two months.

No separate penalty was imposed for failing to stop.

Judge Graeme McKerrell said the defendant had come within a whisker of going to prison.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge McKerrell said it had been bad driving of the highest order, prolonged and clearly dangerous, which could have resulted in a fatality.

The judge said the defendant had defied police lights and sirens, ignored traffic signals and driven down a one-way street, and he was sure that he had been showing off.

Judge McKerrell had given long and anxious consideration to the sentence he would impose.

Prosecuting officer Marc Davies told the court that police officers had been driving down Fountain Street at about 9.30pm when they saw the defendant travelling in the opposite direction. They heard the engine of his car rev loudly and saw it speed up.

The officers turned around and after briefly losing sight of the vehicle they saw it again in Trinity Square.

The blue lights and siren on the police vehicle were deployed but the defendant failed to stop. He was overtaking traffic as the speed on the police car reached 50mph to 60mph. The defendant drove up Ruettes Brayes.

Other police units were deployed and at the roundabout at the top of the hill the defendant turned right and went down Ville au Roi.

He drove through temporary traffic lights which were green but had traffic queuing at the opposite end. In view of the blue lights and sirens, other traffic was pulling to the side of the road.

McEntee drove through the traffic lights at the Mount Row junction, which were amber at the time, into King’s Road. The lights turned red, which slowed the police pursuit.

When officers caught up they saw the defendant turn in to Belmont Road and a decision was made to halt the pursuit for safety reasons.

Officers then heard a loud bang and saw a dust cloud. The vehicle had crashed into a wall and McEntee was removed from it.

He said he was sorry and that he had not done anything wrong.

In interview later he said his girlfriend, who had been in the passenger seat, had been telling him to keep going. He had not stopped because he did not think he had done anything illegal. He had been driving at 40mph to 50mph and said the cars that he had been overtaking had been travelling at 3mph.

His previous convictions were of some age, limited to traffic matters, and mainly cautions.

Advocate Paul Lockwood said that by his client’s own admissions this had been a shocking episode of very poor driving. It could have caused serious injury or worse. He had been in a blind panic at the time and not thinking clearly.

He had apologised in person to the property owner whose wall he hit and the damage caused had been paid for.

He had sought help from his GP since this incident and some clinically significant mental health issues had been diagnosed.

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