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One-legged addict jailed for dangerous driving


Dr Kenneth Noisewater
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One-legged addict jailed for dangerous driving

 

Aug 14 2008 by Andrew Pain, Evening Gazette

 

A ONE-LEGGED motorist who mowed down a binman and just missed a woman with a pushchair has been jailed.

 

Disabled driver Simon Bland repeatedly interrupted his sentencing hearing at Teesside Crown Court by speaking over the judge and barristers - beginning as prosecutor Ian Mullarkey attempted to explain the case.

 

Judge Les Spittle told heroin addict Bland: “This is intolerable. I will not accept your continuing interference and interruption. If you have anything relevant to say I will give you an opportunity to speak to your legal representative. I will not have you interrupting.”

 

Mr Mullarkey said on July 7 last year an off-duty PCSO spotted Bland get out of his Ford Focus at a petrol station on Marton Road in Middlesbrough - naked from the waist down.

 

Bland, 36, was arrested later in the day after being spotted again with the car careering onto pavements and into the paths of other vehicles causing motorists to take evasive action.

 

He was reported to police again on July 31 after being seen driving at less than 5mph on the A171. He then got to Ormesby Bank where he picked up speed, clipped a kerb and almost hit a young girl on a cycle before going into the path of a van which managed to steer clear. He later mounted a pavement again and struck binman Buster Carter, who was left unable to work for six weeks. And on November 22 he just missed a woman pushing a pram as he tried to reverse.

 

Robert Mochrie, defending, said: “Throughout the best part of this decade Mr Bland has suffered from trouble with addiction to heroin - and that is evident by his demeanour.”

 

As promised, Bland - who lost his leg in 2002 - was given the opportunity to speak. He told the judge, who he repeatedly called Les: “I have the utmost respect for you people in authority.”

 

Bland then spoke of his youth at Stokesley Comprehensive, the Gulf War and how he dreamed of being a Marine. “I joined the French Foreign Legion,” he added. “I was with them for four years, no, three years. I had to do a runner from them. It was too hard. I can’t go back to France - I will be arrested.”

 

Bland apologised to the binman who he referred to as “Buster Douglas”. He then spoke of a hairdresser who was at school with his brother before being interrupted by Judge Spittle.

 

Bland, of Beckenham Gardens, Hemlington, pleaded guilty to three charges of dangerous driving and failing to give a specimen. He was jailed for 12 months and banned from driving for three years. As he was led down to the cells he asked to be banned from driving for five years instead, before shouting: “Thanks everyone, thanks judge, I appreciate it.”

;):) :)

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As promised, Bland - who lost his leg in 2002 - was given the opportunity to speak. He told the judge, who he repeatedly called Les: “I have the utmost respect for you people in authority.”

;)

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What is it about Teesside and one-legged dangerous drivers??

130mph chase of one-leg car thief

 

Evening Gazette

 

A ONE-LEGGED car thief outpaced police in a 130 miles an hour chase, a court was told.

 

A month after losing his leg in a road smash 18-year-old Dennis O’Brien evaded police in Cleveland and County Durham for three days in a stolen £35,000 BMW.

 

When cornered on a motorway sliproad, he reversed at speed along an embankment and footpath. He was caught sitting in the passenger seat of the car with the engine running and he denied being the driver.

 

The BMW 335 diesel automatic had false plates and was believed to have been stolen from Hull, said Patricia Mancina, prosecuting. O’Brien later claimed he had been loaned it.

 

She said that during the earlier pursuit on the A19 North he had driven at over 130mph weaving in and out of traffic before switching to the southbound carriageway.

 

Police lost the BMW until it was found parked up in the Castle Eden area, Teesside Crown Court was told.

 

Eight months earlier O’Brien, who had never held a licence, was disqualified from driving by Teesside Magistrates under a false name.

 

Nigel Soppitt, defending, said that O’Brien lost his leg last October as the result of a road accident.

 

Judge John Evans observed: “Which makes his driving in the November incident all the more remarkable.”

 

O’Brien tried to hang himself in a police station custody suite.

 

Mr Soppitt added: “After October he had seen his life effectively destroyed by the reckless driving of another. He felt there was no point in going on, and that is really the state of mind he was in when a well-meaning soul loaned him that car.”

 

He said that O’Brien was now being helped by a psychiatrist and his GP, and he had no inclination to drive.

 

The judge said: “You lost your leg after a road traffic accident and one might have thought that might have had a devastating impact on you such that it would have deterred you from ever getting into a vehicle thereafter.

 

“We will see if your expressed intention to stay away from motor cars is genuine or not.”

 

O’Brien of Briar Road, Thornaby, pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated vehicle taking and driving while disqualified, dangerous driving, and no insurance and licence on November 22 and 24, and also perverting the course of justice in March last year. Sentence was deferred for six months and he was given an interim driving ban.

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O’Brien tried to hang himself in a police station custody suite.
but a leg on the chair snapped

 

 

O’Brien of Briar Road, Thornaby, pleaded guilty to two charges of aggravated vehicle taking and driving while
dislegafied
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