Driver banned after drunken police chase through Staffordshire
A man has been banned from driving after leading police on a drunken chase through Staffordshire roads.
Neil David O’Donovan, of Hawthorne Road in Wimblebury in Cannock, was sentenced to 10 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years on Friday, March 12, at Stafford Crown Court.
He was also disqualified from driving for three years and ordered to take an extended re-test if he re-applies and to pay prosecution costs of £340.
The incident happened on December 24 last year when two police community support officers (PCSOs) came across the 44-year-old's white BMW Series 1 parked on Marquis Drive in Cannock and suspected he was under the influence of alcohol.
The PCSOs reported the car, which drove off at speed towards Hednesford.
The car was spotted by police officer in Cannock, but O’Donovan failed to stop and the officer followed, along with officers from the Central Motorway Police Group.
O’Donovan drove towards Penkridge and turned south along the A449 towards Gailey.
He drove at speeds of 80 to 90mph in a 60mph limit, went the wrong way around a mini roundabout and failed to stop at a give-way in Penkridge, before driving onto the A5 towards junction 12 of the M6.
The car collided with a roadside bollard on the A5, causing damage.
O’Donovan was arrested at the scene and provided a positive roadside breath test then, in custody, he blew a reading of 60 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, with the legal limit at 35.
The officer in the case, PC Iain Payne, of the Central Motorway Police Group, said: "That nobody was killed or seriously hurt as a result of O’Donovan’s actions is pure luck.
"Drunk and driving dangerously, he put the lives of every other person on the road at risk with his actions that night."
