Ludlow driver jailed for drink-drive offence

A Shropshire man has been jailed for a "dreadful piece" of driving as he sped away from police when more than three times the legal drink-drive limit.

Judge Mark Eades, sitting at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday, said it was a miracle no-one was hurt when Darren George Wilkinson rolled his Mitzibushi Lancer over after leaving the road in the snow and ice. Wilkinson, 27, of Coreley, Ludlow, was jailed for eight months and ordered to serve half his sentence.

He was also banned from driving for three years and ordered to pay £250 costs.

"This was a dreadful piece of driving. Temperatures had plunged to minus 10 degrees and there were snow banks and ice on the road," said the judge.

"It was a miracle that no-one was killed."

Mr Rob Edwards said police noticed Wilkinson driving near Hopton Wafers just after 11pm on Boxing Day and decided to follow him because of the standard of his driving.

The court heard it became clear that Wilkinson was trying to get away from the police who "clocked" him doing 60 miles an hour in a 30 mile-an-hour zone.

They followed him for about four miles and saw him cut corners on the Hopton Wafers bends and overtake on double yellow lines on the brow of a hill.

He went over a cattle grid, forced oncoming cars to swerve and then left the road, rolling end-to-end and coming to rest upside down in a field.

Mr Edwards said neither Wilkinson nor his girlfriend were badly hurt in the crash although Wilkinson was taken to hospital.

A blood test showed he had 270 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80 microgrammes.

Mr Mark Sharman for Wilkinson said that his client had no previous convictions and a clean driving licence and that he had behaved completely out-of-character.

He had panicked when he saw the police car.

He told the court Wilkinson was an electrician who employed other people and if he received an immediate jail sentence they would suffer as well as him.

By Sue Austin