A 23-YEAR-OLD man who took a car without permission, drove it with no licence or insurance while under the influence of drugs, and crashed it into two other vehicles – writing it off – has been spared a “wholly justified” jail sentence.
Jacob Joseph Brown was instead banned from driving for two and half years, ordered to perform 70 hours of community service and has been given a six-month probation order. He must also pay £500 compensation to the owners of the vehicles he crashed into.
Advocate Katie Ridley, prosecuting, told the Magistrate’s Court that Brown took the silver Honda without its owner’s permission on 2 March.
The following day, Brown was seen driving the car through St Helier while using his phone to listen to music.
“He was changing the song on his phone, which caused him to crash into two parked vehicles, a BMW and a white van,” she said. “There was significant damage to both of them and to the Honda.”
Brown was found to have high levels of pregabalin and benzoylecgonine in his blood. Pregabalin can be prescribed to help with pain relief but patients are warned not to drive or operate machinery while under its influence.
Two days after the crash, police at the Hospital’s Emergency Department who were investigating another incident found that Brown had three tablets of the class C drug diazepam in his coat pocket.
Advocate Heidi Heath, defending, pointed out that Brown had admitted the offences at the earliest opportunity and felt genuine remorse.
She added that he had some mental-health problems and said: “He has to address his mental-health needs and regularise his medication.”
She argued for a community service order.
Relief Magistrate David Cadin told Brown that the offences were very serious and said: “A custodial sentence would be wholly justified.”
However, he accepted that Brown was dealing with mental-health problems and imposed community service and probation orders.
