Drink driver led police on a high-speed pursuit until he crashed into a garden wall just yards from his home in Whitnash

A drunken Whitnash man led the police on a high-speed pursuit – until he crashed into a garden wall just yards from his home.

And a judge at Warwick Crown Court told Gursangeev Manik that the late-afternoon incident, during which he reached 60mph in residential streets, was too serious for a non-custodial sentence.

Manik (42) of Moorhill Road, Whitnash, was jailed for 14 months and disqualified for 31 months after pleading guilty to dangerous driving and driving with excess alcohol.

Prosecutor Joshua Purser said that at 5pm on October 13 the police had a report that a heavily intoxicated man was being abusive at the Bulldog pub in Whitnash.

When they arrived they were told he had driven off in a black BMW, so carried out a vehicle check to find the owner and went to his address, but the car was not there.

They waited for a short period before deciding to head back to Leek Wootton, but then saw the BMW at the Othello Avenue roundabout in Warwick Gates, and began to follow it.

Expecting the driver, Manik, to be heading home, they planned to speak to him there.

But the officers observed ‘terrible driving’ in Heathcote Road, with the BMW weaving across the full width of the road, so decided to intervene because there were pedestrians about.

They put on their blue light to indicate to him to stop, but Manik immediately turned right into Franklin Road where he accelerated away, reaching 60mph in the residential road.

As the pursuit continued along other residential roads, Manik was driving so far onto the wrong side of the road that at one point the BMW mounted the kerb, said Mr Purser.

Rather than going home, Manik sped along various roads, narrowly missing other cars as he turned corners, and after one narrow miss he reversed towards the police car, but did not make contact, before speeding off again.

After finally turning into Moorhill Road he collided with another car before reversing into the police car in trying to get past it as the officers attempted to box him in, causing significant damage to it.

He then made off again, but drove straight into a garden wall where the officers were then able to use their vehicle to pin the BMW against the wall.

Manik was dragged out of the car and arrested, and a breath test showed he was almost four times the legal alcohol limit, added Mr Purser.

Graeme Simpson, defending, said: “This was not a long piece of dangerous driving. It was only a short period when he tried to avoid the police, and he led them straight to his home.”

He said Manik, who had had a clean driving licence, had gone through ‘a very unpleasant divorce which he could not cope with,’ and now does not know where his ex-wife and children are.

As a result, although he did not drink every day, alcohol became a problem, and Mr Simpson, asking the judge to consider a suspended sentence, commented: “Frankly, he’s a bit of a mess.”

But jailing Manik, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: “You were very drunk indeed and made the very bad decision to drive yourself home from the pub.

“You were driving very badly indeed, which is hardly surprising, given your condition.

“The officers put their blue lights on to demand you to stop, but instead of that you sped off, driving at 60 in a 30 area.

“You then hit a car and you drove into a wall, and you also reverse-rammed the police car that was pursuing you.

“Of course I take the point that it only went on for a few minutes – but it only takes seconds for someone to be killed by that sort of driving.

“If you are driving in that way at that time in the afternoon when there are bound to be people around, you are bound to put other people at risk.

“We have case after case in this court where someone has driven in the way you did on that evening, and as a result someone has lost a mother or a father or a son.

“This is too serious to be dealt with by anything other than an immediate period of custody.”