A9 dangerous driving Inverness woman jailed after series of Highland incidents
Police were involved in a 13-hour long cat and mouse pursuit of a 36-year-old Inverness woman who drove at speeds of over 100mph and weaved in and out of traffic on the wrong side of the road to evade capture.
The drama unfolded from 2.45am of December 6 last year when police saw Samantha Stewart, of Galloway Drive, Smithton acting suspiciously with two men at the Esso filling station in the Longman industrial estate and discovered that the VW Golf she was in was not covered by insurance.
It was not until 3.20pm later that day that police tracked down Stewart, now a prisoner at HMP Grampian, to a house in Rowan Road where she was heavily intoxicated by drugs and refused to have a blood test to reveal the extent of her impairment.
Inverness Sheriff Court heard that Stewart drove out of the forecourt and was lost to view and police ordered a look-out for her vehicle. It was seen on the Black Isle at 4.37am by a patrol but travelling in the direction on the B9169 near Kinkell and although officers turned on their blue lights, she accelerated away and on to the A832 towards Tore roundabout.
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Fiscal depute Susan Love told Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald that police did not have the resources to stop her but searches continued and at 4.51am the VW was seen travelling along Charleston at North Kessock.
"She appeared to accelerate harshly through the residential area. No attempt was made to stop or follow her due to the residential nature,” heard the court.
At about 1pm, the Golf was recorded driving into the forecourt of the Jet garage in Beauly. Coming up to 2pm, police were travelling along the A835 from Tore towards the Maryburgh roundabout when they saw the Golf.
Ms Love showed dashcam footage of the chase that ensued which showed Stewart driving three abreast, taking the Tore roundabout in the wrong direction, overtaking and narrowly missing vehicles coming in the opposite direction. Others pulled in and stopped for safety reasons and to allow the pursuit to continue.
She emerged onto the A9 heading south towards Inverness and her dangerous driving continued, reaching speeds of over 100mph, so the police decided to stop the pursuit, Ms Love said.
Her car was later traced in the Dalneigh area at about 2.20pm where she drove on the wrong side of the road at excessive speed and a woman in her car with her young daughter had to take evasive action to avoid a collision, Ms Love added.
Stewart was eventually caught up with in a house in Rowan Road and multiple police units attended, to find her under the influence of drugs.
Stewart admitted dangerous driving and various other driving offences as well as a breach of a bail curfew, imposed on similar charges for which she later admitted and was jailed for 14 months in February this year.
Defending, Shahid Latif said there was nothing he could say about mitigating the circumstances and he conceded that a jail sentence was inevitable.
"HMP Grampian is the best place for her and she recognises this,” he said. “The loss of her brother and father was punctuated by bad decisions and a negative peer group which led to a dependency on street intoxicants.
"The only way she can wean herself off these is under the stringent restrictions in prison. She is intent on rebuilding her life when she is released."
Jailing her for 18 months, and banning her from driving for seven-and-a-half years, Sheriff Macdonald told Stewart: "I would ban you from driving for life if I could.
“This was utterly appalling and reckless conduct by you over the course of several hours. It put yourself, members of the public and police officers in danger of losing their lives.
"You are not living in a video game - the dangers of your driving was apparent for everyone to see and must have been alarming for anyone on the A9 that day. It was shocking."
Her prison sentence was backdated to December 9 when she was remanded in custody.
