A teenager was described as being 'almost a lost cause' as he was sentenced for leading police on a 90mph chase through residential streets. Rocky Price was told it was lucky he did not kill anybody during the high-speed chase through Newark in June, in what one officer described as "the worst standard of driving he had ever seen" in his 18 years of service.
Price, 18 and of no fixed address, was already disqualified and without insurance when he was spotted by police officers out on mobile patrol at around 9.20pm on June 14 this year. Officers had to quickly accelerate to catch up to Price who was already driving at 65mph in a 30mph zone, refusing to stop when two police cars blared their sirens instructing him to pull over.
What followed was a "high-speed car chase over a considerable distance", Lucy Jones, prosecuting, told Nottingham Crown Court. "This was through areas with heavy traffic and pedestrians," she said.
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"Price was driving at 70mph and other road users had to brake harshly in order to avoid collisions. He was bullying his way through the traffic." After narrowly avoiding a collision with a Toyota driving in the opposite direction, he headed on to London Road, driving on the wrong side of the 'keep left' barriers at speeds of up to 90mph through streets busy with cars and pedestrians.
He then lost control of his car and crashed into three parked cars at such a force that one went into a garden wall outside a house, with Price's Audi vehicle flipping over onto its roof, the court heard. Price was taken to hospital as a precaution after sustaining minor injuries from the incident. Price had lost control after hitting the curb but tried to carry on driving before eventually crashing the vehicle.
Mitigating, Phil Gibbs said: "He is now an adult and he must take responsibility for his actions. He is remorseful."
Price had been found guilty of dangerous driving previously and was still disqualified after that sentence when he led police on the chase - he has also been previously imprisoned for robbery.
Price pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and with no insurance and failing to stop for police. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison, disqualified for driving for three years and ordered to pay a surcharge.
Sentencing Price, Judge Rafferty QC said: "It's said that you are sorry for what you did - the only thing you are sorry about is that you have been locked up again. You don't care about the law, you don't care about putting people's lives at risk. You are hell bent with doing what you think you will do. That is why, at the age of 18, you are almost a lost cause."
He added: "You need to grow up. At the moment, you are showing absolutely no prospect of that at all. How you did not kill somebody is, quite frankly, a miracle. You no doubt were thinking how clever you were trying to get away from police. You thought yourself to be invincible. You were wrong."
After the incident, neighbours in London Road described how they heard an "almighty bang" when the car went through the wall. Retired Rodger Johnson, 72, and Lynn Johnson, 69, were watching television that evening before hearing a crash.
Lynn said: "We were just sat watching TV and then there was this big bang, you (Rodger) ran out to see if anyone was injured, I grabbed the phone but as soon as we came out the police were there."
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