'Dangerous' van driver came face-to-face with Cowley LTN dead end

David Mills, 46, was pulled over behind the wheel of his bright-yellow Renault van by a patrolling traffic cop on June 29 last year, after the van flashed up as uninsured on the officer’s in-car computer.

Having stopped him in the forecourt of the Cowley BP garage on Oxford Road the officer asked Mills to do a breathalyser test.

Rather than comply, he sped off with his driver’s door open. The traffic officer was forced to jump out of the way and Mills left a yellow paint mark where his van scraped the side of the marked BMW police car.

Having squealed onto Oxford Road, the lemon-liveried van took a sharp left onto Littlehay Road.

Mills dumped the van and fled after coming face-to-face with the wooden planters installed near the junction of Littlehay Road and Rymers Lane as part of the council’s Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) scheme.

David Mills outside Oxford Crown Court

Interviewed at Abingdon police station, he claimed he’d panicked after the police officer told him the van would be seized. It was a works vehicle and he would get in trouble with his boss if the van was taken off his hands, he said.

Mills, of Mather Road, Oxford, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving without insurance.

Oxford Crown Court heard he had nine previous convictions for 50 offences. They included old driving matters, including a conviction in 1993 for dangerous driving.

Sentencing him to an 18 month community order, Recorder Michael Roques said Mills left the garage forecourt at such speed he wouldn’t have had enough time to stop if any pedestrians were in the way. “Nor would they have had enough time to avoid you,” he added.

The judge said: “It was luck more than judgement on your part that has meant there hasn’t been a really serious injury caused here.”

Littlehay Road LTNs, where David Mills came unstuck Picture: GOOGLE

Recorder Roques concluded that although Mills had posed a danger to members of the public on the day of the short police chase, ‘by far and away’ the best way to ensure he didn’t pose a similar risk in future was to ensure he got help with the ‘demons he was struggling with’.

Mills was ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work, up to 26 rehabilitation activity requirement days and banned from the roads for a year and a half.

He must take an extended retest if he wants to drive again.

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