A 17-YEAR-OLD disqualified driver who sped away from police, leading to a chase through a busy town, has been suspended and banned from driving for three years.
Jerry Harty was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court on Friday when he was also ordered to take a diversionary scheme to engage with rehabilitation activity for 20 days to get him to change his ways.
Harty’s driving was so dangerous – with excessive speed, driving on the wrong side of the road, and travelling the wrong way around a roundabout – that police had to call off their pursuit.
Watch what happened in the video below:
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A driving ban should be a suspended sentence. Driving while banned means automatic prison time for the rest of that ban plus a minimum doubling of a ban for disqual driving. In this case, he should have been locked up for at least 5 years for that driving and the danger he presented to the law abiding. This of course would be in addition to his previous ban.
If he is caught disqual or unlicensed driving, he should face a minimum of 10 years inside and if convicted again, 20 years inside. If he cannot mend his ways with that sort of punishment looming over him, he is clearly too stupid and dangerous to be allowed in the community in the first place.