Ashington drink-driver jailed after crashing car in Brighton

An Ashington man has been sentenced to after crashing his car in Brighton while drunk and reporting his car as stolen in January 2013.
JailedJailed
Jailed

Ashley Haulkham, 24, a car salesman of Ashington near Pulborough was charged with perverting the course of justice, failing to stop at a road accident and failing to report a road accident, say Sussex Police

He was sentenced at Brighton Magistrates Court on December 20 to a year in prison for perverting the course of justice, six months for failing to report the accident and another six month for leaving the scene of an accident, which will both run concurrently with the year. He was also disqualified for driving for a year after it was established that he had fled the scene due to being drunk while driving.

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Police were called to the A23 London Road, Brighton near to the Black Lion Pub around 6.05am on Sunday January 6 where there had been a hit and run collision.

A light blue BMW, heading north out of the city, had collided with a parked Vauxhall Astra which had then been pushed into a Ford Galaxy and this had collided with a fourth vehicle, a Mini Cooper.

Officers found the BMW had collided with such force that its airbags had been activated but there was nobody in the car.

A bank statement, mobile phone and Sat Nav found in the car traced the owner of vehicle to Ashley Haulkham. Haulkham had phoned police during January 6 to say he believed his car had been stolen when it was no longer where he parked it in Mackie Avenue, Brighton the night before.

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However DNA was found on the airbags which matched Haulkham’s indicating he was driving when the bags activated. He was arrested on January 17 at his home address and charged.

PC Alan Harris said: “Haulkham has rightly been sent to prison after he crashed his car and caused significant damage to three other vehicles. Not only did he leave the scene but he also reported his car as stolen to try and deceive the police that he had not been driving. He knowingly provided a false account to Sussex Police of what happened, to stop himself from having to deal with the consequences of his actions. Our investigations proved that Haulkham was driving that morning and a jury unanimously found him guilty of all three offences. This behaviour is unacceptable, Haulkham put peoples lives at risk when he decided to drive. We will always bring those committing offences to justice.”