A 22-year-old man who sped away from police while under the influence of cannabis has been given a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years.
Shrewsbury Crown Court heard how police officers on patrol in an unrelated operation observed Daniel Edwards’ red Peugeot driving up and down a road in Oakengates and became suspicious.
The officers put on their blue lights in order to pull Edwards over, but he accelerated away, said Robert Edwards, prosecuting. He was not speeding at first but then increased to 65mph in a 40mph area.
At a junction he finally crashed into a VW Golf driven by shopkeeper Mohammed Youseff, who was knocked unconscious and suffered rib and foot injuries. His car was also badly damaged.
Mr Edwards then went on to say that the defendant was found to be in possession of a small amount of cannabis and failed a roadside drugs test. Subsequent testing at the police station found him to be five times the legal limit for cannabis in his system. A test for alcohol proved to be negative.
The defendant told police he had seen their blue light and panicked because of the drugs he was carrying, but claimed he had not been speeding.
Edwards pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving under the influence of drugs, failing to stop, driving without insurance and possession of a class B drug.
Paul Smith, representing Edwards, said his client had no previous convictions, was reducing his use of cannabis, and had a job working with a local company. He added that coming to court and the possible penalty had been a “salutary lesson”.
Judge Jim Tindal said the defendant’s judgement on the day had been ‘appalling’ and that he should not have been behind the wheel of his car. He said he found the defendant in court as a result of ‘hanging around with the wrong people’ and getting into smoking cannabis.
In addition to his suspended jail sentence, Edwards was also ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work and banned from driving for two years.
