Drunken builder who took police on a “highly dangerous” 20-minute car chase in Blackpool spared jail

Kyle Hendrie was said to have jumped five red lights, driven on the wrong side of the road, cut corners, smashed into a traffic island and flattened a street sign before losing control and crashing into two parked cars.

When his black Mitsubishi pick-up truck came to an abrupt halt he tried to escape on foot, only to be arrested by officers a short distance away.

Preston Crown Court heard he was almost one-and-a-half times over the drink-drive limit when tested.

Handing down a suspended prison sentence Recorder Geoffrey Lowe told Hendrie: “You indulged in an appalling piece of driving. The only mitigating factor is no-one was injured.”

Prosecuting barrister Tom Challinor told the court a policeman on patrol in South Shore in the early hours of Saturday October 5 last year was informed a driver had failed to stop.

He caught up with the vehicle in Lytham Road and a pursuit began with the officer switching on his blue lights and siren to get him to pull over But Hendrie ignored him, driving along a number of streets behind the main Promenade.

After about five minutes he turned onto the Promenade and increased his speed to around 50 mph in a 30 mph zone.

“There were various manoeuvres which were plainly dangerous,” he said.

Hendrie drove straight across a pedestrian crossing even though there were a number of people on the pavement who were “clearly intoxicated from the night before”.

He went across two more pedestrian crossings, went through several red lights and ploughed into a traffic island knocking over a “stop” sign.

He then turned into Central Drive, ran another red light, cut a corner, went onto the opposite carriageway and drove towards an oncoming vehicle.

“The police officer was concerned he appeared to be driving more dangerously in order to force him to abandon the chase”, said Mr Challinor.

By this time the police helicopter had been scrambled to monitor the chase which in total had lasted around 20 minutes But as Hendrie drove into Bloomfield Road he swerved around another police vehicle and lost control, smashing into two parked cars, narrowly missing two pedestrians.

When he came to a halt he got out and ran off but, tracked by the helicopter crew, he was caught not far away and arrested.

After he had sobered up he made a full admission of what he had done.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and drink driving.

The court heard Hendrie had a number of previous driving convictions including failing to stop for police on two other occasions.

Mr Challinor said it was a case of deliberate dangerous driving involving “highly dangerous” manoeuvres.

Hendrie’s defence barrister Kira Unsworth said her client accepted full responsibility and expressed remorse for his actions that night. He had been out drinking and had consumed four or five pints “before he made a dreadful decision to drive home.”

“He realises that he was lucky not to create harm to others or himself.”

She said his seven-year relationship had broken down and the split had triggered a deterioration in his mental health.

He was only able to see his three children at weekends and when they weren’t with him he had turned to alcoho but he had now realised the seriousness of his situation, had not had any alcohol since before Christmas and intended to carry on staying sober. He had also sought help with his mental health issues.

She told Recorder Lowe: “He is no longer hiding from his problems.”

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He was a self-employed builder employing two other men and if he was sent to prison he would have to cease trading, impacting on his two employees and also his ability to see his kids.

The judge said the pursuit had been “prolonged and highly dangerous” but he accepted the breakdown of his relationship had had a “devastating” effect on Hendrie and he told him that if he was to hand down an immediate custodial sentence Hendrie “couldn’t complain about it”. But he added he was “just about persuaded” to suspend the sentence because there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.

He gave him a 14-month jail term suspended for 18 months and banned him from driving for 18 months.

Hendrie must also complete some rehabilitation activity days, a mental health treatment programme for six months and have an alcohol monitoring device fitted for a period of 120 days to check if he had turned back to drinking.