Teen who drove at 100mph to escape the police in Watford is jailed

A teenager who drove at 100mph to escape the police in Watford was sentenced to 6 months’ detention on Friday 1st February.

Michael Brown, 19, from Harrow, went through a red light and the wrong way around a roundabout as he made his getaway, St Albans Crown Court heard.

Prosecutor James Dick said the police spotted a 2004 Mondeo with damaged bodywork and a broken light turning onto the A41 at a quarter past one in the morning on June 13 last year.

The officers put on their blue lights, but Brown refused to stop. “He drove off along the A41 at speeds exceeding 60 mph – at times over 100 miles per hour. He went through a red traffic signal at 85 miles per hour and the wrong way around a roundabout.”

The police lost sight of the car, but noticed tyre marks on Elstree Road.

A check on the registration plate was made and the police went to his home in Harrow. Brown was found outside in the parked car with his girlfriend, who said she was 16 weeks’ pregnant. He had five small bags of cannabis on him.

Brown, of Shaftesbury Avenue, Harrow, appeared for sentence having pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, having no licence and no insurance and possessing cannabis.

The court was told that he had received an 18-week sentence suspended for 18 months for a similar driving offence that he had committed three weeks later on 4 July. In all, he had six previous convictions for 12 offences.

William Maley, defending, said: “He is still young. He needs to grow up and be productive in society. Mr Maley said he had “read him the riot act.”

Sending him to detention and banning him from driving for 21 months, Judge Philip Grey said: “You knew you should stop. You drove off at enormous speeds. It was an incident of appalling driving.

“You need to understand this is extremely serious offending. Your horrific driving put other road users at great risk. It is purely down to luck we are not dealing with a crash involving other users. People die because of this sort of behaviour.

“Selfishly you put your desires above the safety of others on the road.”