Published: Saturday, 11th October, 2008 12:30
Driver caused high-speed mayhem
By Christine Gray
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INCIDENT SCENE: Police car in street.
A DANGEROUS driver who led police on a hair-raising high-speed chase as he desperately tried to evade arrest has been jailed.
Greenock motorist Mark Diffin’s speeding car overtook in the face of oncoming traffic, then mounted a traffic island.
Shocked police officers could only watch as his antics forced other motorists to swerve out his way before he deliberately collided with police vehicles.
At Paisley Sheriff Court yesterday, Diffin, of Peebles Court, Greenock, admitted the charge and pleaded guilty to failing to provide a breath specimen once arrested.
The court was told the incident began just after 6.30pm on 20 January when police on mobile patrol in Paisley, activated their blue lights in a bid to have Diffin pull his car up to talk to him about suspected speeding.
The 24-year-old accelerated away. The court heard he deliberately rammed police vehicles on three occasions, damaging the bodywork.
One of those incidents happened on the A8 at Langbank as he stopped and reversed into a patrol car which had caught up with him.
Despite damage caused to the vehicle he was in, Diffin drove off at speed once more and was tailed through Port Glasgow and Greenock.
He was eventually cornered in Greenock, but in Weir Street, drove at a police vehicle as it tried to block him.
Diffin admitted he persistently drove at excessive speeds during the incident, caused his vehicle to collide with four marked police vehicles, caused numerous other motorists to take evasive action to avoid a collision and acted in the manner described in the face of obvious and potential danger caused by parked cars and the presence of other vehicles and pedestrians.
After hearing the facts last month, Sheriff James Spy deferred sentence and called for background reports and a community service assessment, releasing the accused on bail.
When he returned to learn his fate, the court was told he had been attending a course in Glasgow and asked a colleague’s girlfriend to loan him her car so he could get home to Greenock as it was a Sunday and there were difficulties with public transport services.
Knowing he was uninsured, he panicked when he saw police and sped off — an act he now appreciated had been ‘crass stupidity’.
Sentencing Diffin to eight months’ imprisonment, Sheriff Spy described the episode as ‘a serious piece of bad driving involving a long chase, damage to police vehicles and members of the public being placed in danger’.
He said custody could not be avoided. Diffin was also banned from driving for four years.
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