Man and woman sentenced for driving offences – Wallingford

Following an investigation by the Thames Valley Police Rural Crime Taskforce, a man and a woman have been sentenced for driving offences in Wallingford.

Magistrates sentenced Joshua Bridgman, aged 29, of Meadowside, Dorchester-on-Thames, to four months in prison, suspended for a year-and-a-half, at Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (9/11).

The magistrates also disqualified him from driving for five years and gave him a community order with a drug rehabilitation requirement.

Bridgman pleaded guilty to three counts of driving a motor vehicle with a proportion of a specified controlled drug above the specified limit, namely ketamine, cocaine and benzoylecgonine, and one count each of driving whilst disqualified and using a motor vehicle on a road/public place without third party insurance at the same court on 28 September.

At the same hearing, the magistrates disqualified Danielle Collins, aged 27, of Meadowside, Dorchester-on-Thames, from driving for two years and gave her a one-year community order with a drug rehabilitation requirement.

She pleaded guilty to two counts of driving a motor vehicle with a proportion of a specified controlled drug above the specified limit, namely ketamine and benzoylecgonine, at the hearing on 28 September.

Shortly after midnight on 25 March this year, officers from the Rural Crime Taskforce were completing rural burglary patrols on Icknield Road when they noticed an Audi A3 parked in a lay-by with its lights on and multiple people inside.

While the officers checked the vehicles details on the police system, Collins drove the Audi slowly past the officers’ car.

The officers then saw Collins swap seats with Bridgman and he drove past the officers again.

The officers put on their blue lights to get Bridgman to pull over but instead, he reversed and hit the curb.

More officers in another police car then arrived and boxed the Audi in.

Checks on Bridgman showed he was disqualified from driving and he was suspected to be under the influence of drugs, as did Collins, so they were arrested.

Blood tests later showed they were both above the specified drug-driving limits.

They were both charged on 12 September.

Investigating officer PC Ben Little, of the Rural Crime Taskforce, said: “I am pleased with these results as Bridgman and Collins both drove while heavily under the influence of drugs, putting other motorists at risk.”

JD