An uninsured driver who led police on a dangerous high speed chase through Hyndburn with a child in the car has avoided jail.
Ashley Idiens, from Accrington, reached speeds of up to 70mph on 30mph residential streets, drove through red lights and around roundabouts the wrong way during the four minute chase.
Police spotted the 26-year-old driving his Seat Ibiza towards West End in Oswaldtwistle ‘in excess of the 40mph limit’ at around 10.40pm on July 12 this year, and when they discovered the registered keeper was in the south of England they tried to pull him over, Burnley Crown Court.
However former grounds worker Idiens ignored the flashing police lights and sped through Oswaldtwistle along Stanhill Road and Union Road reaching speeds of 70mph.
Lisa Worsley, prosecuting, said at the junction with Blackburn Road in Church he went the wrong way round the roundabout before going through red lights at the junction with Dunkenhalgh Way.
The court heard how Idiens then sped along Dill Hall Lane, failing to stop at the junction with Queens Road West, before going through another red light at the junction with Whalley Road.
Miss Worsley said other motorists were forced to stop to avoid a collision as Idiens then travelled along Whinney Hill Road towards Huncoat.
Idiens pulled onto Lynwood Road before ‘driving recklessly on narrow roads’ around the area until coming to a dead end, the court heard.
The prosecutor said Idiens was arrested as he tried to flee the car where his partner and a child were also passengers.
He told officers at the scene: “I panicked.
“I have no insurance.”
When interviewed by police the defendant said he had been to see a friend and panicked when he saw the police.
The court heard how he had bought the car ‘with a view to selling it on’ to help make money and support his family.
Idiens pleaded guilty at Burnley Crown Court to dangerous driving and driving without insurance.
He was given an eight-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, with an eight-month curfew requirement, a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement andordered to pay £200 costs.
He was also disqualified from driving for two years and ordered to take an extended re-test.
'Feckless and dangerous driving'
A Judge said Ashley Idiens was very lucky that his ‘feckless and dangerous’ driving didn’t get his passengers killed.
Sentencing, recorder Andrew McLoughlin said: “What makes this offence so serious is a number of features.
“First and foremost you have got two people in your vehicle.
“That was a persistent deliberate attempt to escape from the police stopping you.
“Goodness knows how but fortuitously no one was involved in an injury and no vehicle was damaged by your appalling driving.”
Anthony Parkinson, defending, said Idiens is a ‘genuine, hard-working thoroughly decent young man’ and has been left unable to work since suffering a serious back injury last year.
He told the court it was an ‘appalling piece of driving’ and Idiens ‘expresses genuine remorse and contrition’.
Mr Parkinson said: “He panicked. He could’ve stopped the car. It’s a decision he has regretted since his arrest. He now has to live with that.”
