Highest speed seen by judge gains teen community service and disqualification

Saturday 25 August 2018

A teenager who was recorded driving at 90mph along L'ancresse road has been given 90 hours of community service and banned from driving for 15 months.

The juvenile who was 17 at the time of the offence, but 18 now, cannot be named for legal reasons. His velocity was captured on a speed gun by officers stationary at the Vale Church car park, who eventually caught up with him and cautioned him at L'Islet.

During sentencing in the Magistrate's Court this week the prosecution outlined that at around 19:10 on Sunday 10 June, Police officers were monitoring the traffic from the Vale Church car park when they noted a white Ford Fiesta travelling from L'ancresse towards them at speed. Using their equipment they recorded a reading of 90 miles per hour and decided to stop the driver.

They eventually caught up with the car at L'Islet where the driver, identified as the defendant, was cautioned and it was noted that there was also a passenger in his car. Guernsey Police at the time also noted that there were no pedestrians or other vehicles in the vicinity when the car was seen speeding and that the conditions were good.

In sentencing Judge Graeme McKerrell noted the very high speed, stating that it was the highest speed he had encountered as a judge and that meant the offence was serious in its nature.

Since the offence and guilty plea the juvenile defendant had been bailed with the condition not to drive and had abided by this. The judge said he would take this into account when deciding on his disqualification period.

The judge said that he would give him credit for the guilty plea and treat him as a person of previous good character, he also noted he was a juvenile at the time of the offence and that would also be taken into account in sentencing.

Addressing the boy he said that there was a passenger in the car at the time who he put at risk and whilst there may not have been any people or cars around at the time that was more luck that anything else. He continued telling the defendant that his actions were extraordinarily stupid and that he was lucky not to get a lengthy prison sentence to match the seriousness of the offence and the high speed.

He further told him: "You could have easily lost control and at that speed could have ended up killing someone, plain and simple so consider yourself lucky. At that speed you could have gone to prison today, but I am prepared to consider it a moment of madness."

The judge gave him 90 hours of community service and disqualified him from driving for 15 months, which he said had taken into account the fact he had not been driving since the offence.