A YOUNG Carlisle motorist committed a string of driving offences because he was being "controlled and threatened" by people he dare not identify, a court heard.

At the city’s Rickergate court, 20-year-old Tylor Lockhart entered guilty pleas to four offences: careless driving, driving while disqualified, failing to stop when required to by a police officer and having no insurance.

Prosecutor Malcolm Isherwood said all four offences were committed on March 9.

The lawyer described how police spotted the defendant, who at the time was under an interim driving ban, at the wheel of a Land Rover Freelander in Sewell Road Currock when he cut a corner and almost collided with their patrol car.

“He then drove away,” said Mr Isherwood.

“The officers turned their vehicle around and accelerated towards him but he was driving away at speed, bouncing over speed humps as he tried to get away from the police vehicle.

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“He was located on a road nearby.”

At the time, having been accused of a dangerous driving offence, he was the subject of an interim ban.

Two weeks after that Sewell Road incident, said the prosecutor, the defendant, of Beverley Rise, Harraby, was jailed for ten months at Carlisle Crown Court for that dangerous driving.

He was also disqualified for three years and five months. That sentence included an order that he must pass an extended retest before is allowed to drive again while unsupervised.

Jeff Smith, defending, told the court: “When he was [last] last released from custody he found himself under the control of people he would not wish me to name or identify.

“He was told that if he wished to ensure his safety and that of his mother, then he would use the vehicle that was given to him and drive it to deliver various items.

“It was made abundantly clear to him that both his safety and that of his mother would be in danger if he didn’t do this. It was as a consequence of that threat that he committed these offences.”

Mr Smith added that the defendant now regretted his actions, but at the time he was too frightened to report the threats against him and his mother to the police.

For the disqualified driving offence, District Judge John Temperley imposed a 12-week jail sentence, ruling that it would have to run consecutively to the jail term Lockhart is currently serving.

The district judge also imposed a 12-month driving ban with an extended retest, though he noted that this was probably “relatively pointless” given the crown court’s earlier sentence. There was no separate penalty for the careless driving, or the uninsured driving. 

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