A DANGEROUS driver injured a police officer when he sped off to avoid being arrested.
But Triston Dickens, who was about to be arrested for harassment, has escaped being jailed, despite two previous convictions for dangerous driving.
Dickens, 29, of Butlin Road, Rugby, pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to dangerous driving, common assault on PC Shaun Haywood, driving while disqualified and having no insurance.
He was sentenced to 10 months in prison suspended for two years, ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work and made subject to a 10pm to 6am curfew for three months.
Recorder Alastair Smith, who banned him from driving from two years, also ordered personal trainer Dickens to pay £200 compensation to PC Haywood and £500 costs.
Naomi Nelson-Cofie, prosecuting, said in January last year PC Haywood and a colleague went to Bucks Hill, Nuneaton, to arrest Dickens on an unrelated matter.
They saw Dickens pull up in his car and get out, so they followed him.
When questioned, Dickens gave his brother’s name and claimed he had identification in the car, so they accompanied him back to the car – but Dickens started the engine.
PC Haywood reached in through the open door to remove the key, but Dickens drove off, and the door pillar hit the officer’s arm, causing reddening and bruising.
As Dickens sped away without looking, PC Haywood heard other vehicles skidding as drivers had to brake hard to avoid collision, said Miss Nelson-Cofie.
She added Dickens, who handed himself in a few days later, had previous convictions for drug offences and violence, and in 2010 and 2013 for dangerous driving.
He has subsequently been given a suspended sentence for harassment – and a month after the incident he passed an extended driving test to get his licence back after an earlier ban.
Patrick Maggs, defending, conceded: “He understands the jeopardy he is in today, but there are pressing reasons why the suggestion in the pre-sentence report would be an attractive one.”
Mr Maggs argued that the offence came ‘at the lowest end of dangerous driving,’ and a prison term would likely be too short to allow the sort of rehabilitation a suspended sentence could provide.
He said a few weeks earlier Dickens had been warned by the police about ‘a credible threat to his life’ – and had been alarmed when two ‘partially-uniformed individuals’ began asking who he was.
“He had perceived a threat where one was not present,” commented Mr Maggs, but Miss Nelson-Cofie pointed out the officers say they were in full uniform.
Mr Maggs, who said Dickens has just been granted access to his six-year-old daughter and is training to become a full-time personal trainer, argued: “A custodial sentence would put at risk the concrete steps he’s put in place to move forward in his life.”
Sentencing Dickens, Recorder Smith told him: “From the outset you acted obstructively. They were officers in full uniform.
“You drove away at speed, and the vehicle caught the officer’s arm. Your purpose was to avoid the police. There was clearly a risk from your actions, and this will be your third conviction for dangerous driving in seven years.”
But, suspending the sentence, he added: “You have been given many chances, and you have wasted most of them. Don’t waste this one.”
