Field-chase drink driver sentenced
Date published: 09 June 2009
A DRINK driver who fled from police has been given a community service punishment.
Gavin Mather (40), of Roche Road, Delph, was given a 12-month community order with a requirement to do 120 hours unpaid work after admitted driving while double the legal limit and failing to stop for officers.
He was also banned from driving for three years and ordered to pay £80 costs at Oldham Magistrates Court yesterday.
Mather was acquitted last week of causing criminal damage after magistrates were unconvinced by the officers who captured him, as reported in the Evening Chronicle. The case had been adjourned for reports.
He had drunk four pints of strong lager at the Swan pub, Delph on May 26, 2008. When the landlord asked him to move his Mercedes from the car park he decided to drive it home as there was nowhere nearby to park. Two police vehicles followed but he sped off when they put their emergency lights on.
He drove into his father’s field off Lodge Lane but was arrested after running through bushes.
Four police officers told the court Mather had leapt from his car while it was travelling at between 10 to 20mph and it had ploughed down a slope and into a police vehicle.
But Mather insisted he had parked his car at the bottom of the field and had not caused the minor damage to the vehicles. He was backed by an expert witness who cast doubt on the police version of events.
Rob Bimpson, defending, said Mather had thought he was driving a short distance home on quiet and almost deserted village roads. But the self-employed builder admitted he had made a dreadful decision and offered his unreserved apologies.
The case should have been dealt with a long time ago and he had been left with the on-going anxieties of it hanging over him and huge costs in fighting the criminal damage charge, which he would be looking to claim back.
Magistrates said they took into account the guilty plea, his admission of making a foolish mistake and panicking and the stress and financial problems the trial had caused.
