A Swindon man’s been jailed for breaching a suspended sentence order and driving ban imposed by the courts just two months ago.
27-year-old Brian Bingham was caught behind the wheel of a car on Thursday evening despite being disqualified from driving in January for an offence of dangerous driving.
A police officer on patrol spotted a Citroen C1 being driven in Crombey Street at around 8pm. Recognising the defendant, he calls for back-up before following the vehicle.
The car pulls up outside Bingham’s address in Stamford Close, Toothill, where officers confronted him. He was the only occupant of the vehicle and subsequently, he was arrested.
The court heard the journey made on Thursday evening was around two miles.
At Swindon Magistrates’ Court on Friday morning, where he appeared after being remanded in custody overnight, he pleaded guilty to driving whilst disqualified.
Bingham’s defence solicitor said he had “no reasonable excuse”. But told the court he had been working to get a CSCS card, was due to start a job as a groundworker in the coming weeks and had been engaging with the probation service since his January conviction.
She added that he had been drug-free for over a year and his other previous convictions had all been for drug-related crimes committed when he was using class A drugs.
‘He appreciates the seriousness of the incident and it’s not something he will be repeating’, she commented.
In January, magistrates imposed a 12-week prison sentence on Bingham but suspended it for 24 months. He was told he would face that jail term if he committed any further offences during the period.
The chairman of the bench activated the prison sentence with immediate effect and extended it by six weeks for the offence of driving whilst disqualified. Bingham will serve a total of 18 weeks imprisonment.
He was also disqualified from driving for 30 months. The disqualification begins from the day he is released from prison.
