Offender found it ‘difficult to get out of bed’ to carry out her 200 hours of unpaid work

Shareen Callan had escaped being jailed earlier this year after leading the police on what was described at Warwick Crown Court as a high speed ‘Keystone Cops’ chase.

She was given a nine-month sentence suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and not having a full licence or insurance.

But Callan, 20, of Sanders Court, Bridge Street, Warwick, soon breached the order by regularly failing to turn up to carry out the unpaid work.

In May her case was adjourned to give her a chance to show some commitment to it.

And at the resumed hearing Judge Alan Parker observed: “There has been some progress, but not as much as I anticipate the learned judge on the last occasion would have expected.

“The trouble is that she is unable to get herself up to do the work.

“But she certainly wouldn’t struggle to get up if she was in a cell in a detention centre.

“If she wants to go to one, she can; I don’t mind. But what I’m prepared to do is adjourn the case for a further period of time and reserve it to myself.”

Shane Crawford, defending, said there had been problems in the past, but Callan ‘presents herself as someone who is 
serious about fulfilling her obligation.’

And after hearing that Callan could do the remaining unpaid work under an intensive regime of three sessions a week, the judge adjourned the case to see whether she does so.

He told her: “I am prepared to give you one last chance – and I emphasise it is a last chance.

“I shall then review your progress. If there are no more than 15 hours remaining I will regard that as successful and I will not send you to custody; but if you have not complied, I will definitely send you to detention.”

During Callan’s original hearing it was said Callan led police on a 
dangerous car chase, which ended when she hit a brick wall.

Callan, whose brother was in the 
passenger seat, got out and ran off but was caught and arrested nearby.

She said she had been driving her brother to a chip shop, although neither of them had a full licence, and it was found she was also uninsured because she had been relying on her mother to get it, which had not happened.

Before passing sentence Recorder Sam Mainds had said: “Driving like this in an attempt to throw the police off in a Keystone Cops way is 
something I am not impressed with.”