Uninsured Rugby driver crashed into a car with a ten-year-old inside as he attempted to flee police

Farouk Semakula appeared at Warwick Crown Court without any legal representation after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, having no insurance and possessing cannabis.

Semakula (20) of Oakfield Road, Rugby, was jailed for six months – but will only spend a few weeks inside because of the time he has been subject to an electronically-tagged curfew.

Prosecutor Ian Windridge said that at 10.50 in the morning on December 4 last year officers on patrol in Bilton Road, Rugby, saw a black VW Golf being driven by Semakula.

They knew the car’s registered keeper – and could see he was not the person behind the wheel, so began to follow it.

In Corporation Street the Golf pulled onto the forecourt of the Asda petrol station, but drove straight off again and began to accelerate.

There was ‘significant traffic’ on Corporation Street, and Semakula drove between the two lines of traffic on the dual carriageway.

At the roundabout at the junction with Evreux Way, he turned into Oliver Street, a 30mph residential road where his speed reached almost 50.

He then went through red lights to join the busy Lawford Road where he forced his way through traffic before turning into Seabroke Avenue, at which point the officers lost him.

But they had a good idea which way he was heading, and after searching the area they saw Semakula running from the Golf in Wentworth Road.

He had collided with a Suzuki car with a ten-year-old boy in it, and both the child and his father were taken to hospital as a precaution, but were fortunately uninjured.

Semakula, who had no previous convictions, was chased and arrested, and he accepted his driving had been dangerous, explaining that he had panicked because he had no insurance.

Mr Windridge added that Semakula, who had a small amount of cannabis on him when he was arrested, had been subject to an electronically-monitored curfew since February 24.

Semakula had no legal representation, and asking for the case to be adjourned for him to sort that out, he said he had been unable to get legal aid because someone he worked for on a casual basis would not give him written confirmation of his earnings.

But refusing to do so, Judge Barry Berlin pointed out that he had already been given three adjournments to sort it out, and had failed to do so.

Mitigating on his own behalf, Semakula said: “I panicked and I reacted incorrectly. I deeply regret my actions.”

Jailing Semakula and banning him from driving for two years and three months, Judge Berlin told him: “You put other road-users at risk. It is fortunate no serious harm was caused as a result of your actions.

“A ten-year-old child was taken to hospital. Mercifully the child was not injured.

“The argument of panic is one I hear on an almost daily basis. The problem I have is that members of the public are put at risk. There would have been children milling around and adults milling around.

“I recognise you are not a stupid man, you are a bright one. But that’s a double-edged sword. You knew what you were doing. I have thought about suspending it, but I am afraid I can’t.”