A drink-driver who drove at 100mph while leading police on a dangerous pursuit around Nottingham has been jailed. Police were alerted to Nigel Bilsbrough's drunken antics when he was seen doing a dangerous U-turn in Forest Road, Radford before speeding away in the opposite direction and into oncoming traffic.
The 54-year-old's driving was so erratic that at one stage police had to temporarily abandon the chase. Bilsbrough was clocked driving more than double the speed limit at this point, with pursuing officers making the decision to pull back, to reduce the chances of a collision taking place.
After activating automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, police were able to track Bilsbrough down just a few minutes later, in the early hours of August 21 last year. Bilsbrough then made the decision to try and escape from police by travelling at around 100mph along the ring road, towards Eastwood.
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Trained traffic officers were able to catch up with him though and brought the car to a stop on the A610, with Bilsbrough then failing a road-side breathalyser test. Bilsbrough, of James Street, Kimberley, appeared before Nottingham Crown Court on Tuesday (21 June), having pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, drink-driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.
Carrying out sentencing, His Honour Judge Rupert Mayo said Bilsbrough had “shown a complete disregard for the safety of other road users and himself through his dangerous driving."
Bilsbrough was sentenced to 14 months in prison and disqualified from driving for three years. Inspector Paul Ferguson, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Bilsbrough’s driving that night was reckless in the extreme and put everyone else that was sharing the roads with him in danger.
“It is no exaggeration at all to say that the dangerous manner in which he chose to drive, all while under the influence of alcohol, could’ve quite easily resulted in someone being seriously injured. I’d like to commend our officers for the professionalism they showed throughout and for the way they utilised automatic number plate recognition technology to rapidly track Bilsbrough down and bring this incident to a safe conclusion.
“There is absolutely no excuse for anyone to ever get behind the wheel of a car while over the limit, or indeed for anyone to drive in a way that puts others at risk of harm. I’m pleased to see that Bilsbrough has received a custodial sentence for his actions, which should serve as an example to others of how seriously we take all road offences of this nature.”
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