Jail for Rugby man after high-speed police chase

Simon Milburn appeared at Warwick Crown Court after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and having no insurance.

Milburn (30) of Steele Street, New Bilton, Rugby, was jailed for ten months and banned from driving for four years and four months.

Prosecutor Kelly Brocklehurst said that at just before one in the morning on Saturday, January 20, police officers in Bedworth carried out a check on a red Mini Cooper, which revealed it had no insurance.

The officers, who were in uniform but in an unmarked car, turned round to follow the Mini, and pulled up behind it at traffic lights in Newtown Road.

As the Mini pulled away and turned into George Street Ringway, the officers put on their blue lights to get it to stop.

Milburn, who was driving relatively slowly at that stage, turned into Leicester Street and then into Old Meeting Yard, which is a no through road, where his driving suddenly changed.

He accelerated and mounted the pavement, colliding with a brick wall, before squeezing the Mini along a footpath at the end of Old Meeting Yard to emerge in Wyatt Court and then The Grove.

With the police in pursuit, he turned onto Rye Piece Ringway where he accelerated again, reaching over 50mph after continuing along Chapel Street and Johnson Road.

At a roundabout he turned left and headed along Regent Street and then Beechwood Road and into Pine Tree Road where he drove along the pavement before crossing grass verges to get into Furnace Road.

As he sped along Furnace Road, a residential street with car parked on both sides of the road, the officers noticed that one of the Mini’s tyres had deflated, affecting its handling.

At the roundabout with Beechwood Road he took a left turn before returning to Pine Tree Road, where he came to a halt after trying to drive across the pavement again.

As the officers got out of their car Milburn, who had four passengers, was still revving excessively before trying to climb into the back – but getting wedged between the seats.

Milburn, who had 23 convictions which included four offences of driving with excess alcohol and seven of driving while disqualified, ‘showed some remorse’ when he was interviewed, added Mr Brocklehurst.

Despite submissions by Sharon Bahia, defending, that he could be given a suspended sentence, Judge Andrew Lockhart QC told Milburn it was such a dangerous piece of driving that, especially given his record, it had to be an immediate sentence.