Driver from Spilsby abanoned car to avoid police, court told

Thomas Pounder, 24, of Blacksmiths Lane, admitted driving with excess alcohol, failing to stop after an accident and driving without a driving licence or insurance, when he appeared at Boston Magistrates’ Court.

Jim Clare, prosecuting, said in the late evening of October 18, police were told a ‘drink-driver’ was leaving Blacksmiths Lane in a Nissan Primera and they discovered that the car had narrowly missed hitting a house and had hit the kerbs before driving down Boston Road, where it collided with a parked BMW.

He said the Nissan had suffered a shredded tyre and police were able to follow the marks left in the road by the tyreless wheel.

Mr Clare said Pounder abandoned the car half-a-mile away in a slip road and then ran across the road into fields, where he was lost by the police. He was located again later and this time ran off into gardens before being found again and arrested.

He gave a positive breath test with a reading of 49 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

After initially denying the offences, he told officers: “I’m stuffed’, said Mr Clare.

Mitigating, Carrie Simpson said Pounder had been drinking earlier in the day and had waited for the alcohol to subside but had left the house after an argument with his girlfriend, because he thought he was fit to drive.

She said he panicked after the accident and had fled the scene.

Last Wednesday, Pounder was banned from driving for 14 months but was offered the drink-drivers’ rehabilitation course which would reduce the period of disqualification by 14 weeks. He was also fined a total of £360 and ordered to pay a £30 victim surcharge.