Prison for drugged-up Hucknall driver who collided with motorist and injured cop in high-speed chase
A drugged-up Hucknall driver who collided with one motorist and injured a police officer by ramming his vehicle in a high-speed chase has been jailed.
Police spotted Ryan Unsworth driving a VW Golf with cloned plates and used a stinger to deflate one of his tyres in Hucknall at 9pm on May 10 last year, Nottingham Crown Court was told.
An "appalling piece of driving" ensued with Unsworth reaching speeds in excess of 80mph and going the wrong way around two roundabouts, said Judge Julie Warburton.
He collided with one vehicle and narrowly missed another. He drove at 50mph on Watnall Road, which has a 30mph limit, and overtook several cars using the opposite lane.
"Only by sheer good fortune and mercy did you not cause any serious injury at that point," the judge told him
"When police did find themselves in a position to stop you, you rammed one police vehicle."
The officer was left with a cut lip, sore back, and abrasions to his forearms.
Unsworth struggled with officers before they managed to arrest him, and a small amount of cannabis was found in his man bag.
Notttingham Crown Court heard the 32-year-old has 41 previous convictions for 91 offences, including two previous convictions for dangerous driving.
"You have clearly had a very, very difficult life and one which you have found it difficult to extricate yourself from,” the judge told him. “You have a long history of getting into trouble which has caused you to go in and out of prison.”
The judge said he has already served the equivalent of five months on remand and has found prison hard.
"Being a father has made you reflect on things quite significantly,” she said. “You have started to turn your life around. Until you made the decision to drive on this occasion you were making progress. But you were still taking drugs and you had not expressed any wish to stop doing it."
The judge said a probation report found an 89 per cent chance that Unsworth will re-offend in the next two years.
Unworth, aged 32, of Maple Drive, Hucknall, admitted dangerous driving, while disqualified and without insurance, drug driving, possession of cannabis, on a previous occasion.
He was jailed for 17 months on Friday.