A motorist with a long record of driving while disqualified was found behind the wheel again after crashing his car into a tree.
David Haines was in Bottom Pond Road, Wormshill, near Sittingbourne, on February 4, when he lost control of his Volkswagen Polo.
The police came across the crash and the 57-year-old told officers he’d been forced off the road by another vehicle.
But when he was taken to hospital to get checked over, he was overheard telling a nurse he didn’t have a valid licence.
Officers checked his driving status and it was discovered he was banned.
Haines, of Mattison Place, Wormshill, admitted driving while disqualified and without insurance when he appeared at Maidstone Magistrates’ Court on February 17.
James Nichols, prosecuting, added: “He was banned as a totter in July 2024 and that was for two years, so he’s banned until 2026 but told officers he’s not checked when it expired and thought it had.”
A totting-op disqualification is issued when a driver amasses 12 or more penalty points on their licence within a three-year period and can result in a ban of six months or longer.
Mr Nichols added: “However, he was driving just months into the two-year disqualification.
“He’s also been banned several times before in 1994, 2006 and 2007 and has been given a suspended sentence of 60 days suspended for 18 months for one of the offences.”
Defending himself, Haines told magistrates he was only driving the car to scrap it.
He added: “I was taking it to the scrap yard, I wanted to get rid of it.
“I didn’t know about it [the ban], but I actually didn’t check and I thought the car was insured. I have a bad memory.”
Magistrates ordered an all-options pre-sentencing report to be carried out on Haines because his history of driving while disqualified was so bad.
As a result, he was warned they were not ruling out a jail term.
The chairman of the bench told Haines: “You have committed the same offence again and again and again and you even got a suspended sentence and that didn’t seem to affect you.”
He will be sentenced at the same court on April 14.
#Sittingbourne #motorist #banned #driving #times #crashed #car #tree #Bottom #Pond #Road #Wormshill
Leave a Reply