Cheshire: Driver jailed after flipping van in crash

Joe Dagnall, from Orford, was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and banned from driving at the time of the incident.

The 29-year-old was locked up for 14 months on Tuesday, July 20, over his latest conviction – following a series of other motoring offences.

Chester Crown Court heard that an unmarked police car spotted the defendant driving a white Citroen Berlingo van on Valiant Close in Fearnhead at around 11am on November 16 2019 and decided to follow the vehicle.

After continuing over Hilden Island and onto Orford Green, Dagnall began to accelerate away.

The dad attempted to overtake an Audi A3 which was turning right into the Esso petrol station but crashed into the side of the car.

His van was sent flying into the air by the impact and careered into oncoming traffic on its side, smashing into a Ford Focus travelling in the opposite direction.

Dagnall, of North Avenue, was captured on CCTV running away from the scene of the collision in a video which was played to the court.

But he returned to the petrol station shortly afterwards, entered a car which had been filling up and ordered the owner to drive him to Watkin Street in Orford.

The stunned motorist obliged, but the serial offender was identified after leaving bloodstains in the vehicle having suffered a cut to his left arm during the crash.

After being arrested, Dagnall 'showed no remorse or concern for members of the public' under interview and 'appeared to be amused'.

He was detained again at his home address in June 2020 and was found in possession of a snap bag of cocaine.

In a statement read out in court, the Audi driver described having suffered from back pain as a result of the accident while her car was written off.

Dagnall admitted dangerous driving and possession of cocaine during an earlier hearing.

But a further charge of aggravated vehicle taking was dropped after the prosecution offered no evidence over the count.

He has never passed his driving test, but has been convicted of motoring offences on numerous occasions – having totted up nine convictions for 16 offences overall.

In 2014, Dagnall was banned from the roads for drink driving.

The following year, he flouted this disqualification and failed to stop for police on Winwick Road.

On this occasion, he was handed a nine-month imprisonment suspended for two years having pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.

And Dagnall was sent down for 36 weeks in October last year after being convicted of driving while disqualified again following an incident on the A49 in February 2020.

Since his release from custody on Christmas Eve, he has been working as a bricklayer as well as acting as a carer to his deaf brother and is now clean of drugs.

Sentencing, judge Michael Leeming said: "Yours is a poor record with driving offences.

"This was a bad piece of driving.

"When sober and free from drugs, you are remorseful and you have made some progress.

"But you were travelling at such a speed that the impact caused your vehicle to flip onto its side, and you ran from the scene.

"These offences are so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified.

"You have a partner and young children, and you should have thought of them before you drive in this manner."

Dagnall was also banned from driving for a further year and ordered to pay a victim surcharge.