A man drove his e-scooter out of a junction while disqualified from driving - and immediately hit a car. Ryan Thomas, 19, of Pendre, Bridgend, used the scooter as a means of getting around whilst disqualified - saying he did not realise he was breaking the law as he did so.
On June 30, 2022, officers were called to a crash in Cerdin Avenue, Bridgend, and found Thomas's e-scooter had collided with a Nissan Qashqai. Footage shows Thomas pulling out of a junction at high speed and immediately colliding with the car and coming off his scooter.
Thomas' family said that he had suffered serious injuries including two skull fractures, a bleed on the brain and needed continuing therapy for his brain injury and was under the care of Morriston Hospital in Swansea.
A sentencing hearing in Newport Crown Court on February 10, 2023, heard that when police spoke to Thomas he repeatedly asked: "Am I in trouble, am I going to prison?" Thomas had already been sentenced for several driving offences in just three months before the e-scooter crash, when (in March 2022) he drove the wrong way down a road and crashed into a car containing a mother and son, 'virtually head on,' resulting in them both sustaining injuries. You can get more courts news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
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The judge in that case had given him an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years, banned him from driving for two years, given him an electronically monitored curfew and told him to undergo 35 days of rehabilitation. Thomas's barrister told the court he had not been aware that a licence was required to drive an e-scooter.
The court heard that Thomas's grandfather had bought him the vehicle as a means of getting around while suspended from driving. The judge replied to this: "He's got two legs for that," but he heard that Thomas and his family weren't aware that a licence was needed.
After the e-scooter crash, Thomas gave a 'no comment' interview to police but later pleaded guilty to driving whilst disqualified and using a motor vehicle without insurance.
He had seven previous convictions for 15 offences, the last in April, 2022, for criminal damage.
The judge, Mr Recorder R J Philpotts, took into account the guilty plea, the fact that Thomas hadn't deliberately chosen to put himself behind the wheel of a car during his driving ban and the content of a pre-sentencing report.
In reference to the fact Thomas was soon to become a father, the judge said: "The way you behaved on that day was like a child yourself." Thomas was sentenced to a total concurrent sentence of six months in a young offenders institute for the two offences.
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