Fleeing lorry driver ran across four lanes of M1 in escape bid

A lorry driver on false plates stopped his HGV on the outside lane of the M1 in Derbyshire, jumped over the central reservation and ran across four lanes of traffic in a bid to escape from the police. Derby Crown Court ^[1] heard how Scott Revel, who has an extensive criminal record, then told officers he was actually the passenger in the vehicle and was hitchhiking home despite no-one else being found when officers checked.

At the time of the offence, the 45-year-old was only a month into a suspended sentence order for earlier driving matters after a district judge “gave him a chance” despite amassing 22 convictions for 56 offences. Now he will be off the roads for a number of months after he was sent to prison.

Jailing him for a total of 18 months, Judge Jonathan Bennett said:^[2] “In my view, this dangerous driving is a serious matter because firstly there was a police chase and secondly, having looked at the footage and heard what happened, this was a highly dangerous manoeuvre.

“There was something protruding from the van you were driving, you were swaying from side-to-side and you then abandoned the vehicle not in the first lane, not on the hard shoulder, but in the outside lane and you then scarpered across the motorway ^[3] which was an incredibly dangerous manoeuvre.

“Fortunately, it was something like 4.40am in the morning, the traffic was light and vehicles managed to avoid you, but for the grace of God.

“You have a horrendous (criminal) record with 56 offences and if I had to count them all it would take me a long time and a number of them are for driving while disqualified. You need to break the cycle you are in.”

Richardo Childs, prosecuting, said police on patrol on the northbound M1 spotted a lorry being driven by the defendant between junction 28, at South Normanton and the Tibshelf service station at around 4.40am on May 29, this year. He said because what appeared to be tyred were making the curtain-sided HGV bulge, one car decided to follow it and attempt to pull it over.

The prosecutor said Revell ignored the requests and carried on driving so a second patrol car was asked to join the pursuit. Mr Childs then played CCTV of the lorry swearing from side to side and then pulling out into the outside lane where it was then abandoned. He said: “He left the vehicle, jumped over the central reservation onto the southbound carriageway and ran across the lanes into a verge.

“He was arrested and interviewed and along with no comment answers said he was the passenger and that someone else was driving who he did not know. He said he had been in London at the time and was hitchhiking back home.

“He said he did not know the lorry was on false plates.” Revel, of Victoria Street, Allerton Bywater, near Castleford, West Yorkshire, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, driving on false plates and driving without insurance.

He also admitted the offence put him in breach of a suspended sentence order, imposed in April of this year, just a month before the Derbyshire offences, for driving while disqualified and again on false plates.

Ian Brook, mitigating, said his client has been in custody since he was arrested in late May and that the suspended sentence order was a previous district judge “giving him a chance”. He said: “He knows he has let the system and the court down by this reoffending and he clearly has a bad driving record which speaks for itself.

“This is not the worst piece of dangerous driving any of us have ever seen, it was early in the morning and the M1 was relatively quiet. This is not one of those cases where there’s a high-speed pursuit with someone running red lights and going the wrong way round a roundabout.”

As well as the jail term, Judge Bennett disqualified the defendant from driving for 141 weeks.

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References

^{^} Derby Crown Court (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
^{^} Judge Jonathan Bennett said: (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
^{^} then scarpered across the motorway (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
^{^} Paul Flood: Notorious Derby conman back in prison for latest frauds (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)
^{^} the main Derbyshire Live newsletter here (www.derbytelegraph.co.uk)