A convicted dangerous driver who bought an Audi A3 in celebration of completing his driving ban found he couldn’t afford the insurance – then got caught driving the new motor with cover.

Ironically for Brendon Shamu, he has now been given a fresh 15 month roads ban for what a judge at Oxford Crown Court this week branded his ‘very, very stupid error’.

The 25-year-old Sussex university student, who has paused his international relations and sociology course, was originally before the courts in 2021 for a police chase that started when an officer in an unmarked car tried to pull him over on Pegasus Road.

A police officer tries to smash Shamu's window as he drives away Credit: CPS

In that case, Shamu claimed that he had been stabbed several weeks before, been worried for his safety and panicked when the – uniformed – officer tapped on his window.

Shamu was back in Oxford Crown Court on Thursday (June 8), nearly two years after being spared an immediate prison sentence by a judge who said Shamu was ‘saved’ by the fact his case followed that of a ‘worse’ dangerous driver in the court list that day.

This time, the university student was behind the wheel of an Audi A3 when police clocked it doing 36mph in a 20 zone on Nowell Road, Rose Hill, on the evening of April 24.

He was pulled over but initially gave his cousin’s details rather than his own. The driver, who had two passengers in his car, gave a positive drugs test at the roadside for both cannabis and cocaine.

Taken to Abingdon police station he then refused to provide a blood sample – claiming that he was fasting for Ramadan, despite having a day after Eid brought the Holy month to an end.

Shamu, of Pegasus Road, Oxford, then pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court to driving without insurance and failing to provide a specimen of blood.

Alice Aubrey-Fletcher, mitigating, said her client bought the Audi ‘towards the end of his period of disqualification’ imposed for the dangerous driving. He did so ‘essentially as a celebration of being able to drive again’.

He passed an extended driving retest, enabling him to get back behind the wheel again. But he discovered that he ‘couldn’t even get a quote’ to get his new motor insured, given his previous conviction for dangerous driving.

The barrister said that Shamu had paused his university studies in Brighton, but had hopes of resuming them and eventually working in the NGO or charitable sector. His partner was currently pregnant, the court heard.

Ms Aubrey-Fletcher said of her client: “He has ideas and he has ambition. He clearly has potential but is losing his way.”

Recorder Bate-Williams said he had decided ‘by a fine margin’ not to activate the 2021 suspended prison sentence and send Shamu inside.

He instead imposed a 12 month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work and a requirement to complete the ‘drive safe’ probation course. Shamu was banned from the roads for 15 months and ordered to pay £425 in costs.

The judge said: “You should have been sufficiently mature, in my judgement, to know that it was extremely unwise and a criminal offence to be driving without insurance and not be prepared to offer or provide a blood sample.”

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