At about 3.40am on September 19 last year, he was spotted driving his Mercedes erratically at a roundabout in Cranes Farm Road, Basildon.Just a loveable scamp on his first wild adventure?
A marked police car followed him on to the London-bound track of the A127. When Rawlings saw the flashing blue lights, he accelerated to speeds of up to 120mph on the 70mph road.
He did not even stop when traffic cones narrowed the dual carriageway into one lane and he was forced to pull up sharply behind an ambulance. Instead he drove into the cones, and forced the ambulance, which was attending a 999 call, to swerve to avoid his car.
Rawlings raced on, cutting up another car as he joined a single-lane stretch of the A128, heading towards Thurrock. On that 50mph road he continued to clock speeds of up to 120mph as the pursuing officers struggled to keep up.
It was at that point he decided to turn his lights off.
Eventually he turned into Welling Road, a residential street in Orsett. He had not realised it was a cul-de-sac and police blocked off the exit. Rawlings got out as officers approached on foot. He told them: “I was not driving. The driver ran off.”
Well, no:
It was just ten days since his most recent driving ban had finished. He got that after being jailed for six months for dangerous driving in March 2007.If anyone deserved the book thrown at them, it’d be Anthony Rawlings, right?
Recorder Marc Lowe QC gave him a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and told him to complete a drug and alcohol rehabilitation programme during a 12-month supervision period. He was also given a six-month electronic night-time curfew, banned from driving for three years, and told to pay £535 costs.*sigh*
Anthony Rawlings…said he was “completely shocked” with his unlikely reprieve at Basildon Crown Court.He’s not the only one…
Another tale to quote when Ken Clarke or Anne Owers or anyone else for that matter bangs on about how the UK imprisons more people than Turkey or China (well they just execute them) or wherever. Just what do you have to do to get imprisoned? Well if your an OAP who doesn't pay her councuil tax - not much, first offence...banged up. A serial thief or scumbag with a previous list longer than anyone's arm....well, a lot. Mental.
ReplyDeleteI agree that sentancing and the prison population needs looking at and amending, but this is a clear case of a muppet who should be behind bars.
ReplyDeleteUnlike, as Ranter says, an OAP who doesnt pay her council tax
Oh for fuck's sake. I don't mind people like this fuckwit - the one in the dock, not the one on the bench - getting off without a jail sentence if, and it's a very large and important if, the alternative is just as tough in its own way. 12 months suspended might be okay for, say, ten years. That's how long the points last after all. But a slap on the wrist with this guy's record? Jeez...
ReplyDeleteSUSPENDED sentence hmmm? Sounds about right. By the neck.
ReplyDelete"Another tale to quote when Ken Clarke or Anne Owers or anyone else for that matter bangs on about how the UK imprisons more people than Turkey or China..."
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping Owers is another one the coalition has plans to ease out...
"...this is a clear case of a muppet who should be behind bars."
Indeed.
"But a slap on the wrist with this guy's record? "
Indeed. If he was a young man and it was his first offence, I might tend towards leniency.
But this guy?
"SUSPENDED sentence hmmm? Sounds about right. By the neck."
It's hard to see how he's going to stay out of trouble ottherwise. But it seems magistrates are great believers in the power of redemption.
And why not? They are seldom troubled by their own failures.