Inverness dangerous driving puts police officers at risk

A sheriff "performed a difficult balancing act" when he opted to protect the public by sentencing a 17-year-old boy to a maximum of 15 months in a secure unit for endangering police officers' lives by driving a car towards them at the start of a 55-mile long course of dangerous driving.

The youth who had been drinking then drove off at speed at the start of a 30-hour long cat and mouse hunt for the Aberdeen teenager which began in Inverness and ended in Keith.

Sheriff Gary Aitken decided his priority had to lie with the protection of society rather than the need for rehabilitation and support for the youngster who was aged 16 at the time of the series of offences.

He told the youth: "The course of driving and potential consequences for the police and the public are extreme to say the very least. The only thing that makes it remotely difficult for me is your age. If you were five years older it would have been a sentence of four or five years, which is towards the maximum I can impose.

"Supervision may make a difference for you. However the needs of justice are not solely yours. Society requires to be protected from those who behave in this fashion so I am forced to the view that nothing other than a custodial sentence is appropriate."

• More court news

• Sign up for our free newsletters

The teenager who cannot be named for legal reasons, will likely only serve a few months in a secure unit for persons under the age of 18 as the sentence was backdated to February 4 - the date of his remand and the fact he will only serve at most half of the headline term.

As he reaches the age of 18 in early summer, it is also unlikely he will serve much, if any, time at the Polmont Young Offender's Institution to where he would be transferred on his birthday.

Sheriff Aitken also banned him from driving for four-and-a-half years and ordered the unlicensed driver to sit the extended test of competency before he receives his driving licence.

The teenager had previously admitted at Inverness Sheriff Court three charges of driving dangerously and two of assault to danger of life, committed on March 10 and 11 last year.

His lawyer Neil McRobert had hoped his client may receive a sentence in the community after spending the equivalent of a three-and-a-half-month custodial sentence on remand.

He told the court: "There is little that can be said to mitigate his conduct. It was his brother's car, the driving was indeed dangerous and at the age of 16, he had no right to be behind the wheel.

"He is remorseful and ashamed and this could have had more serious consequences not only for himself but more significantly for others."

Fiscal depute Emily Hood told the court that the police saw the boy drive at speed through a pedestrian archway in Lombard Street, Inverness at 12.20am on March 10 and refused to stop when signalled by three police constables on foot patrol.

Ms Hood said: "The accused accelerated and drove directly towards them all, two of them having to take evasive action by jumping to the left to avoid being struck. He stuck his middle finger up at them.

"He then veered his vehicle to the left towards one of the officers who had to suddenly move behind a set of metal bollards to avoid being struck."

The silver Subaru was then driven through Inverness, with CCTV picking it up in Academy Street and it was tracked down in Clachnaharry Road by a police vehicle but it sped away. Ms Hood said no pursuit of it was authorised.

The teenager was located at about 11pm that night in the Merkinch area after it struck another vehicle in Kessock Avenue. The occupants of that car followed the teenager. But when it drove up the wrong way along Pumpgate Street, one of the witnesses jumped out to take a photograph of the car, only for the youth to drive towards her and she was pulled away by her partner, Ms Hood went on.

Their vehicle was struck head on, hit a parking sign, and mounted the pavement to drive round the damaged car.

The Subaru was spotted by an off-duty constable half-an-hour later at the Esso garage in the Longman but although one police car that had been dispatched parked in front to stop him driving away, he quickly reversed out of the forecourt and disappeared along the A96.

The court heard it was seen about 75 minutes later in the Moray area and then again at about 2.10am on March 11 in Keith, through which it drove at speed on the opposing carriageway to the danger of others.

Ms Hood told the sheriff that at 2.35am it was seen by two witnesses in the middle of an unclassified road at Whitehill, Keith when the Subaru drove towards them at speed and struck the rear of their vehicle.

"The incident was reported to the police and at 6.40am, police received a call that the vehicle was abandoned in the middle of the road and causing an obstruction on Grampian Road, Elgin,” Ms Hood said. “Police attended and observed the accused in the driver's seat apparently asleep. He was arrested."