Any criminal solicitor worth his salt will be able to tell you that crashing a recently stolen vehicle into a Police Officer's car is not going to end well. This was exactly what happened to a Mr Beard who was already well known to the Court for previous matters including some motoring convictions.
The vehicle belonged to the Deputy Chief Constable of Durham Police and Mr Beard had only just been released on bail from the police station, for an unrelated matter, when he was involved in the new driving offence. It was alleged that he had stolen the car after taking the keys from a local public house when he was making his way home and had in fact also decided to steal a mobile phone at the same time. Mr Beard was also held to be responsible for assaulting the Deputy Chief Constable and failing to provide a blood specimen when asked to do so at the police station. The theft of the vehicle would be serious enough but the failing to provide a sample can lead to a lengthy disqualification from driving and a licence to be endorsed.
Mr Beard was sentenced at the Crown Court due to the serious nature of the charges. It has not been made clear whether he engaged the services of a specialist motoring solicitor but he would have been well advised to do just that. These types of cases can result in a number of different punishments including being banned from driving and a custodial sentence. The Crown Prosecutor informed the Court of the facts of the case which were that Mr Beard had stolen the Fiat motor vehicle and then crashed it into the Mercedes of the DCC, he had then attempted to head butt the police officer during the fracas that followed. The vehicles involved both had substantial damage caused to them and the DCC received minor injuries to his upper lip. Mr Beard was detained at the scene and taken into custody for the serious offences. He later appeared at the Crown Court before HHJ Peter Kelson who concluded the matter by imposing an immediate custodial sentence of two years stating that Mr Beard enjoyed a criminal record that was "appalling."
By motoring offence solicitor, Martyn Walsh
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