A cinema worker is starting an 18 month jail sentence after taking police on a chase in his mum’s Ford Fiesta and assaulting an officer leaving him with permanent scarring to his face.
Banned driver David Porter, 24, took his mum’s car to work after she told him to catch the bus on January 7 this year. But when she noticed the vehicle was missing she reported it to the police and they traced it to the Odeon Cinema at Preston Docks, where both Porter and his mother worked.
Kimberley Obrusik, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court the car was spotted at the traffic lights at Watery Lane, Ashton, with Porter at the wheel.
A chase then ensued, through rush hour traffic, in which Porter forced his way through stationery traffic at a red light and drove into oncoming traffic and onto the footpath.
He also collided with a parked car as he tried to get back onto the road.
He finally came to a stop in the middle of the road when the car he was driving was damaged. As PC Simon Davies, who had been following the driver, approached the door flew open with such force it hit him in the face causing cuts to his mouth.
Porter, of Leicester Street, Preston, tried to barge past the officer but was pushed back into the vehicle and arrested. PC Davies had to have 13 stitches to his upper lip and will be left with a permanent scar.
John Woodward, defending, told the court: “He is utterly ashamed and very remorseful for the injury he has caused the officer. The last thing he wanted to do was cause injury to anyone.
“He panicked when the police, quite appropriately, asked him to stop. Red mist ascended and the rest is history.”
Judge Pamela Badley, sentencing, told Porter: “This is the fifth time you have been before the court in respect of matters which are connected with your driving.
“This is by far the most serious, although I do note you have a previous conviction for dangerous driving.”
She jailed Porter for 18 months and banned him from driving for three years.