A DANGEROUS driver who led police on a chase flouted his ban by once again climbing behind the wheel, this time driving a stolen car on cloned plates while high on drugs.

Agoraphobic Christopher Lewis, formerly known as Christopher Finch, claimed he had run out of medication and was driving to the doctor’s in Worcester to pick up some more.

But judge Robert Juckes QC jailed Lewis, telling him he had already been given a chance when a suspended sentence was imposed for dangerous driving and not to activate it would render such sentences ‘meaningless.’

Lewis, 30, of Park Street, Worcester had already admitted driving whilst disqualified, using a motor vehicle without insurance and two counts of drug driving when he was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court on Thursday.

Metabolites of cocaine and cannabis were found in his body when police officers performed tests on August 7 this year. Thomas Griffiths, prosecuting, said an officer initially spoke to Lewis because he suspected the car was being driven on cloned plates which later proved to be the case.

Mr Griffiths said: “It was noted that the defendant presented a smell of cannabis. His eyes were enlarged and bloodshot and he had glazed vision.”

He was arrested and further tested at the police station where he was found to be three times the limit for cocaine with a reading of 160mcg per litre of blood of Benzoylecgonine (BZE), a breakdown product of cocaine, more than three times the limit of 50mcg. He was also marginally over the limit for cannabis with a reading of 2.2mcg compared to a limit of 2mcg per litre of blood. Lewis was previously convicted of being unfit to drive through drugs, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence and driving without insurance on June 1, 2017.

He was served with a 10 month prison sentence suspended for two years for dangerous driving. He was therefore subject to a three year ban at the time of the offences in August this year and had also been told to complete an extended retest. The facts of the dangerous driving which took place on January 11 last year were also described by the prosecution. Lewis had been on the M5 travelling towards junction 4 when a police officer indicated that the defendant should pull off the motorway and follow him but instead Lewis accelerated away.

“He failed to stop and a pursuit commenced” said Mr Griffiths. The chase continued along the A491 towards the A38, onto Woodrow Lane then Stourbridge Road.

Lewis drove across the crossroads on Fairfield Road/Dodford Road without stopping. At one stage he was said to have been driving at 60mph in a 30. He entered Warbage Lane and turned into Dordale Road before police blocked him in, finding a Stanley knife in his pocket when they searched him.

Neil Davis, defending, said of the offences in August: “He suffers from agoraphobia and split personality and takes medication on a daily basis. On this day he had run out. As a result of that he foolishly got behind the wheel of this vehicle and drove to the doctor’s and then was stopped by police on the way home.”

Mr Davis told the court his client had been fully co-operative with police and added: “There was no element of any bad or dangerous driving.”

He told the court Lewis had not known the car was stolen but was disqualified at the time he bought it, intending to sell it on.

Judge Robert Juckes QC said Lewis had been ‘lucky’ to get a suspended sentence on the last occasion and that there was no doubt this had been imposed because of the defendant’s mental health problems.

However, he added: “The whole point of a suspended sentence is that the judge is saying to you ‘this is your chance’. If you breach the suspended sentence, particularly by the commission of another driving offence, then this sentence will have to be served.”

He told Lewis he jailed him with ‘a degree of regret’ but added: “Normally police chase cases are dealt with by an immediate custodial sentence because they create such danger for other road users.”

Judge Juckes jailed Lewis for 13 months. This is made up of 10 months for the activation of the suspended sentence plus three for the driving offences in August.

He disqualified Lewis from driving for three years and 27 weeks and ordered he pay a £140 surcharge.