A man with a history of driving while unfit through drugs has been jailed over a police pursuit which ended with him badly damaging a crop growing in a farm field.

Christopher John Nash was at the wheel of a friend’s Mitsubishi Shogun which came to the attention of officers in a passing police patrol car, in the Murton area, at 4am on July 8.

Durham Crown Court heard that Nash was disqualified from driving at the time.

Elisha Marsay, prosecuting, said the officers began to follow the Mitsubishi and saw Nash pulling over for an ambulance, displaying its blue flashing lights.

 

(Image: Durham Constabulary) (Image: Durham Constabulary)

As the officers approached in their car, the defendant then pulled away at speed.

He overtook the blue-lighted ambulance, drove on the wrong side of the road and took a roundabout in the wrong direction, before passing Snippersgate filling station at 80 miles per hour on a 30-limit road.

Miss Marsay said the defendant then drove through South Hetton at about 70mph and continued on the A182 where a Stinger tyre-deflating device was successfully deployed by police.

As another police vehicle then tried to block the defendant’s further progress on his damaged tyres, Nash made a sharp left turn off the road onto a nearby farm field, causing damage to the land and crops being grown.

The police found the abandoned vehicle in the area a short time later, while Nash was located in the vicinity, where he was cautioned and arrested.

He gave a positive roadside drugs wipe, indicating the presence of cocaine and cannabis in his system, while further samples were taken at the police station.

Miss Marsay said by the time the results from those samples came back, the 43-year-old defendant, of Victoria Court, Framwellgate Moor, Durham, had already appeared before magistrates and admitted charges of dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance.

She said the defendant admitted having used drugs prior to driving when he spoke to the Probation Service to help in the preparation of a pre-sentence report, so it could be taken as an “aggravating feature” of the case.

Miss Marsay said the police chase lasted two minutes and 50 seconds, and, apart from the “highly dangerous manoeuvres”, the excessive speeds and overtaking of an ambulance travelling on blue lights, and the fact he was impaired by drugs, the defendant also wrote off a £1,500 crop of oil seed rape, ten days short of harvest.

The court heard that in recent years Nash has convictions for a string of motoring offences, including causing serious injury to two police officers by dangerous driving and drug driving, and has twice been banned from the road since 2021.

(Image: Durham Constabulary)

He can only legally drive in future if he passes an extended re-test.

Tony Davis, representing Nash, said he made, “a frank admission” in the pre-sentence report as to how he came to be driving a friend’s vehicle, having taken cocaine and cannabis.

“The reality is that he has developed something of an obsession for driving vehicles.

“Every time he’s apprehended it just leads to longer custodial sentences.

“He’s remorseful for his behaviour and maintains, following a period of supervision, he was doing relatively well until he allowed himself to come under the influence of others.

“He ended up with no means to get back home and took the keys to a friend’s vehicle.”

(Image: The Northern Echo)

Judge Jo Kidd told Nash: “You come before the court yet again having had total disregard for the law, despite only just completing your licence for serious driving matters where people received serious injury and yet again while under the influence of cocaine.

“It seems to have had no deterrent effect on your behaviour.”

Judge Kidd said the author of the pre-sentence report pointed to “glaring inconsistencies” in the defendant's explanation as to how he came to be driving that night.

She told Nash: “You seem to have no remorse for continuing to drive in this way.

“Your sentences will only get progressively longer until you grow up and put a stop to this behaviour and lead a law-abiding life.

“It’s a mercy no-one was injured on this occasion.

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“You destroyed a field with significant negative circumstances for a local farmer.”

Imposing a 16-month prison sentence, Judge Kidd extended Nash’s period of disqualification from driving to 56 months.

She said when that period expires he will still have to sit an extended re-test to enable him to drive legally.