Drunken disabled driver hit speeds of almost 90mph in Newton Drive, Blackpool as he tried to flee police

A drunken disabled driver reached speeds of up to 90 mph through the streets of Blackpool as he tried to escape from police.

Preston Crown Court heard Jamie Vowls was on a sentimental trip to the resort to “reminisce” about good times spent there with his late partner when he was chased by a patrol car.

A police dashcam video, played in court, showed him jumping red lights, driving on the wrong side of road bollards and travelling the wrong way round roundabouts. At one point during the 16-minute chase he crashed into a wall.

Finally when his car – on loan from a motability charity – stopped in a cul-de-sac in Hardhorn, he was seen to climb into the back, wedging himself between a passenger and a child’s car seat. Another man who had been in the front passenger seat was seen on camera decamping from the vehicle as it slid to a halt and running away.

Jailing Vowls, 39, for eight months, Recorder John Jones KC told him: “By any stretch of the imagination this was a dangerous piece of driving and deeply so.”

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The court was told Vowls, from West Yorkshire, had travelled to Blackpool in January with friends in memory of his girlfriend who had only recently taken her own life. But his white Ford Fiesta was spotted driving in Dickson Road at 5am.

An officer in an unmarked police car became suspicious when he ran a number plate check and found the vehicle was owned by a motability charity in Leeds. The officer followed the car as it drove around and then, suddenly, it accelerated in Pembroke Avenue, ignoring flashing lights to stop.

The speed increased to more than 70 mph in Warbreck Drive, with the car seen on the wrong side of road bollards. It was chased on Queens Promenade, Northumberland Avenue, Knowle Avenue – again on the wrong side of bollards – Warbreck Hill and Devonshire Road.

It was clocked at 73 mph in Devonshire Road, and reached 89 mph in Newton Drive, finally coming to a halt at a dead end in Marina Avenue, off High Cross Road.

Vowls, of Victoria Grove, Leeds, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, failing to stop, driving while disqualified and driving with excess alcohol in his system.

Barrister Megan Horner, prosecuting, told Recorder Jones said he had ignored police instructions to stop and made off at speed. The police dashcam showed he had reached speeds of up to 90 mph, “at one point, in a residential built-up area, on the wrong side of traffic islands, the wrong way round roundabouts and ignoring traffic lights.”

He had failed to provide a breath sample at the roadside, but when he was tested at the police station he registered more than double the legal limit.

Ms Horner said Vowls had ignored the rules of the road in a “highly dangerous” manner.

He had previous convictions for driving offences including failing to stop for police, failing to provide a breath test, dangerous driving and driving while disqualified. His latest disqualification – for three years in West Yorkshire in September 2021 – still had more than six months to run.

Richard Fluke, defending, said his client “recognises the stupidity of his offending.” He said it was “completely inappropriate and reckless.”

He added: “He may consider himself fortunate that there were no pedestrians and very few other vehicles (around), probably because of the time in the morning that this occurred.

“He panicked. He can’t explain why he decided to drive. He was in Blackpool (because) he had recently lost his partner to suicide. He went there to reminisce about the fond memories they had (there).

“He drank and ultimately he took the wheel of a car, which becomes a dangerous weapon at the hands of those who have consumed alcohol.”

Mr Fluke said he had not drunk any alcohol since the day of the incident and had contacted an alcohol addiction group because he wanted to address his drinking problems. He asked the judge to give him “the opportunity to sort himself out.”

Recorder Jones told Vowls he had driven “extremely dangerously” in a built-up area where all the roads would have had a 30 mph speed limit.

He said he had driven at high speed, on the wrong side of the road, ignoring junctions, navigating traffic islands on the wrong side of the road and at times the police car had been forced to back off because of the narrowness of some of the roads due to parked traffic.

“Mercifully no-one else was inconvenienced or injured,” he said. There had been no other road users who could have been “put into danger by your driving.”

He said Vowls had been more than twice the legal drink-drive limit and his actions that day had crossed the threshold for immediate custody “by some measure.”

In addition to an eight-month prison sentence, the judge disqualified him from driving for 40 months, ordering him to take an extended driving test before he is ever allowed behind the wheel again.