When police responded to a report of a child driving a car a man drove off from the scene thinking he would be arrested, a court heard. But after some 50 yards with police in hot pursuit he drove through a narrow gap, stopped, and was taken to the ground and arrested.
It transpired Michael O'Niell shared the same information on the Police National Computer (PNC) as his brother, Bristol Crown Court was told. And, fearing his brother was wanted for theft, O'Niell panicked and scarpered.
The 34-year-old landscape gardener, of Sunny Ray Park in New Wellington, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving without insurance on June 17. The recorder Mr David Chidgey handed him 20 weeks' jail suspended for 18 months.
