Drunk driver narrowly avoids prison

Friday 13 July 2018

A drunk driver who stole a vehicle, crashed it and fled the scene has narrowly avoided a prison sentence.

Grant Harvey, 19, was instead sentenced to five months youth detention, suspended for two years, and banned from holding a driving licence – which he currently doesn’t have – for 12 months when he appeared before Guernsey's Magistrate's Court yesterday.

During sentencing, Judge Graeme McKerrell at one point had to thunder “are you listening” to the defendant as he sat in the dock.

Harvey had “sailed exceptionally close to the wind” to receiving a custodial term, Judge McKerrell told him, as he handed down the lesser punishment. “I had come to work this morning intending to send you to jail immediately. It was a very, very close thing.”

It was revealed during summing up that an innocent third party – an AFM employee who was responsible for the car – had been arrested the morning after the crash and was taken to the police station for questioning. Although it was not stated how long they had remained under arrest, the judge said, “one second is too long” for an innocent person to undergo the “rigmarole and upset” of being arrested.

The court was told that Harvey had consumed four cans of Strongbow cider at a friends before walking home. On the way, he noticed a light in the AFM car, approached it, saw the keys were in it, entered, put on latex gloves to try and cover his fingerprints, before beginning to drive the car – which he did successfully until crashing it into scaffolding at Les Merriennes, St Martins.

Fleeing the scene, Harvey jumped over garden fences before getting to his partners house, where he remained. Despite seeing requests for information about the crash on the Guernsey Police Facebook page, he did not come forward. A swab of the airbag – which had deployed because of force of the crash – led police to him. After this, the court was told, Harvey admitted everything.

The 19-year-old had no licence, no insurance and his only experience of driving was “three laps round the [Victoria Avenue] track.”

Harvey’s initial plan was simply to abandon the vehicle after a while, and at one point he considered setting fire to the car in a remote location, although he had no means to do this. The probation report had a “strong theme” of his associating with anti-social peers, but the judge noted in this instance he had acted alone with no pressure from anyone.

It was only because of the speculative swab test that Harvey was arrested and convicted, the judge said, and had it not been for this, he might never have faced justice. 

“It is the co-operation [after his arrest] which just, and only just, saved you from custody today.”