Jailed: Driver caught in Telford behind the wheel while disqualified

Brett Compton, 39, was also found not to have insurance when he was arrested on January 31 earlier this year.

Prosecuting, Mr Kevin Jones told Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday, that Compton had been arrested after police in Dawley received information about a Peugeot which had a badly damaged windscreen.

Mr Jones said: “One officer, DC Benjamin, was able to follow and locate the vehicle.

“There were two people in the car, with the defendant driving.

“To be fair to him, officers didn’t take the opportunity to arrest him then, but asked him to report to a police station later that day.

“He did so, and told police it was his mother’s car and he did not believe that he was still disqualified, but that it had elapsed, and that he also thought his mother would have put him back on the insurance.”

The court heard that Compton had previously been disqualified from driving, but that while the timeframe had elapsed, he had not carried out a retest and so was still disqualified.

Compton, of Corbett Close in Little Dawley, Telford, who was arrested during a suspended sentence, had previously been convicted of burglary and was sentence to 16 months suspended for two years.

Defending, Mr Paul Smith said that Compton had been working well and making progress with probation services, and asked the court to consider imposing a curfew or other sort of punishment, rather than imprisonment.

He said: “Mr Compton has an unusual record in that he is now 40 this year, and there are some minor offences in the early 90’s before a huge gap until just a few years ago. I believe he has been working with probation on the issues that may be causing this.

“He was a little perplexed because he was driving outside of the disqualification period, but it means that one is disqualified until one takes a retest.”

Recorder Stephen Thomas said: “You would have been aware, in my judgement, of the terms of your continuing disqualification which meant you were not insured either.

“There is a history of both driving offences and breaching court orders and you would have been aware that on a suspended sentence you had to be extremely careful and mindful of this.

“But on January 31, you were driving when you were disqualified and not insured.”

He was sentenced to two months imprisonment for the latest offences, and was given eight months imprisonment after breaching his suspended sentence.

In total he was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment and was disqualified for driving for a further two years.