Blue light shock lands panicking driver with jail sentence

Gurminder Johal assumed a police patrol was after him when the car activated its blue lights in traffic on the A41 Expressway in West Bromwich, a judge heard.

He had taken a friend's high powered car for "a spin" while unfit to drive through drink and uninsured on April 19, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

"The police car was attending another call but the flashing lights startled the defendant into thinking it was for his benefit and accelerated away, revealed Mr Edward Soulsby, prosecuting.

Johal, who was alone in the car, cut across the path of other motorists, forcing them to take evasive action as he headed into Carters Green.

Then he overtook vehicles on speed bumps while travelling at 50 mph in a 30 zone along Dudley Street, continued the prosecutor.

He went the wrong way round a traffic island before going along the A41 in the opposite direction, back towards Junction 1 of the M5.

The desperate defendant forced his way through heavy traffic by driving so dangerously the pursuing police called off the chase because of the risk to other road users.

The police helicopter kept an eye on the car until he stopped soon afterwards and raced into a nearby shop where he was found feigning sleep in an upstairs bedroom.

Ms Samantha Forsyth, defending Johal, who had two convictions for drink driving among a series of previous offences, said: "He has been monumentally stupid. His driving was lamentable but there is also a different, responsible and caring side to him."

She explained that his father, who brought him up alone after the mother walked out, died suddenly in 2017 leaving him to care for his grandmother.

Ms Forsyth continued: "He knows this is all his own fault and he cannot hide behind his grandmother but he does everything for her and has arranged his life around her." However he had organised a rota of friends and neighbours to care for her in case he was imprisoned.

Johal, from Burlington Road, West Bromwich, admitted dangerous driving, driving while unfit through drink and having no insurance.

He was jailed by Judge Dean Kershaw who said: "It had nothing to do with you when the police turned on the flashing lights but you knew you were in the wrong and drove in the most appalling way."