High-speed police pursuit ends in dangerous driving conviction

Dean Killen, 43, of Tweed Close, failed to stop and drove dangerously between the A153 at Tattershall and Mareham Road, Horncastle.

Boston Magistrates Court watched dashcam footage from the police car on Wednesday (March 29), showing Killen’s Ford Focus almost collide head-on with a digger, and later a lorry, in darkness on February 9.

At one point, he was doing twice the speed limit through a 30mph zone.

Killen, who had a driving ban finish on October 4 last year, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence, and having no insurance.

He also admitted breaching a suspended sentence order by committing the offences.

Mike Alexander, mitigating, told the court that Killen had been waiting for his licence to be returned.

He added: “It was clearly a long pursuit, which the Crown Prosecution Service has put as a medium risk.”

Mr Alexander told the bench that it couldn’t deal with the breach because the order had been imposed by a crown court.

“It seems to me that it’s best for the crown court to deal with both matters rather than separate them out,” he added.

Killen said: “If [DVLA] had just returned my licence this wouldn’t have happened. The ban had finished four months ago.”

All matters were committed to Lincoln Crown Court for sentencing on a date to be fixed.

Killen was given an interim driving ban and granted unconditional bail to the next hearing.