Jack Walters: Drug driver jailed after 90mph police chase

Jack Walters only had a provisional licence and no insurance and tried to outrun police when they tried to stop him as he headed home to Wiltshire from a car show in East Devon.

He was filmed on police webcam as he reached 90mph, weaved in and out of oncoming traffic and ignored double yellow lines on the A 3052 Exeter to Sidmouth road.

The police lost contact with him briefly after he turned onto country roads before officers who were trying to catch up with him came over a hill and found his car wrecked after a head-on crash near Sidmouth.

Jack Walters, aged 34, of Jaggard View, Amesbury (Image: Contributed)

He got out of the wreckage, apologised to the injured 75-year-old driver of the other car, and then lay face down on the roadside with his hands behind his back to await arrest.

Walters was one and a half times over the safe driving limit when he was tested by police.

He was already on a suspended jail sentence for cannabis dealing.

Father-of-two Walters, aged 34, of Jaggard View, Amesbury, admitted dangerous driving and drug driving and was jailed for 15 months and banned from driving for two years after his release by Judge James Patrick at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him: “You made your escape and for four minutes tried to evade the police. In areas with 50 or 60mph restrictions, you travelled at over 90 mph, overtaking cars to escape the police.

“You made a deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road and disregarded the risks and danger to others in a prolonged and persistent course of dangerous driving. There were several highly dangerous manoeuvres when your driving was impaired by the consumption of drugs.

“The police thought they had lost you before they came over the brow of a hill and found you had crashed into the car of a 75-year-old man, who had slowed and taken evasive action but still collided with your car.

“Heaven knows what charge you might be facing if he had not taken those actions.”

Miss Laura D’Allesandro, prosecuting, said the pursuit started after Walters left a car show at Westpoint at 3pm on a Sunday afternoon in June and police became suspicious he may not have a full licence.

Dashcam footage showed him pretending to pull into a gateway but then speeding off and having a series of near misses with oncoming traffic as he weaved through it at up to 90 mph.

He turned off onto country roads and the police had lost sight of his high-powered car before finding it in a cloud of dust, slewed across the road with serious front-end damage. The 75-year-old driver he hit suffered shock and minor injuries.

Miss Kelly Scrivener, defending, said Walters has been a cannabis user since he was 15 and has taken the drug to treat himself for stress and mental illness. He did not realise he was over the limit for driving.

He complied well with an earlier suspended sentence until breaking it by committing these offences and is motivated to reform by the recent birth of his second son. He is a ground worker and gardener who would be able to pay £5,000 compensation if he was not sent straight to jail.