A BANNED driver who was subject to a suspended prison sentence when he led the police on a high-speed chase along residential streets was caught after turning into a dead end.
Gurdeep Notay had narrowly escaped being jailed in 2018 after leaving a woman in pain for the rest of her life when he ploughed into her car at a T-junction.
But his luck has run out – and he has been jailed for two years by a judge at Warwick Crown Court after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and being in breach of his suspended sentence.
Notay, 33, of Houlton Way, who also admitted driving while disqualified and having no insurance, was banned from driving for three years and 11 months.
Prosecutor Ian Windridge said that on the afternoon of September 27 police officers in a marked car saw Notay driving a VW Touran in Newton Manor Lane, Rugby, and tried to stop him.
But he sped away until he reached a traffic island which he went round before doubling back along Newton Manor Lane and along residential streets in Brownsover at 80mph.
In Crowthorns he mounted the kerb, damaging the car, and went over a grass verge before continuing into Junewood Close where he came to a dead end.
Notay got out of the car and made a run for it, but was caught, said Mr Windridge who pointed out that at the time he was subject to a 21-month suspended sentence for causing serious injury by dangerous driving in 2018.
That had involved a woman being left trapped and in agony when Notay, who had hit a police car moment earlier, ploughed into her car at a T-junction and then fled from the scene.
On that occasion the police car was on the outskirts of the village of Shilton, as an officer kept watch on a Ford Focus which they then saw being overtaken on a bend by a large and powerful Audi Q7 4-wheel drive SUV doing around 90mph.
The Audi, driven by Notay, was swerving from left to right, and struck the police car ‘a glancing blow.’
Without slowing down, Notay carried on into Shilton along Wood Lane, continuing to drive at high speed even after entering the 30mph zone in the village as another officer pursued him.
Meanwhile a woman was driving her Mini towards the village along the B4029 in the direction of Bulkington.
As she reached the T-junction with Wood Lane, where Notay should have stopped and given way, the Q7, almost twice the weight of her car, shot out from the junction into the front of the Mini.
The Q7 hit the Mini 90 degrees, spinning it, and both cars ended up at right-angles to the carriageway.
Leaving the Mini driver trapped and injured in her car, Notay ‘decamped and ran,’ but was found hiding nearby and arrested.
Of the latest offence, Notay’s barrister Balraj Bhatia QC said: “It is plain he knew he was a disqualified driver, and on seeing the police car he panicked.
“I accept 80 in a 40 zone is dangerous, but this was a short period of driving. If it was this matter alone it would be a short sentence of a matter of months.
“But I concede the principal matter I have to address is not whether the suspended sentence will be activated, but how much of it,” said Mr Bhatia, pointing out the incident occurred ‘just shy of six weeks’ before the end of the suspended sentence.
“He comes from a very well-to-do background. His father is well-known and respected within the community and is ashamed his son is back before the courts. He has genuine shame he has let his family down in such a significant way,” Mr Bhatia added.
Notay was jailed for 10 months for dangerous driving, with a further two months for driving while disqualified – both consecutive to 12 months of the suspended sentence.
Judge Barry Berlin told him: “The suspended sentence was passed by this court on December 7, 2018.
“You must have known then that a merciful course was taken with you for such an offence, no doubt after submissions were made that you would not get into further trouble.
“Unfortunately you did. I take a dim view of someone who breaches a suspended sentence deliberately, as you did. It was five o’clock on a Sunday afternoon when no doubt people were out with their children.
“Panic is not really a mitigating factor. Whatever the reason, this put members of the public at serious risk.”
