A driver who rammed two police cars in his Mini has been given a temporary driving ban after admitting dangerous driving.
Mark Warren, 41, appeared at Brighton Magistrates Court this morning after a couple of nights in police cells following his arrest in Morley Street off Grand Parade in Brighton on Sunday night.
As well as the dangerous driving charge, he also pleaded guilty to failing to stop, failing to provide a specimen and possessing cannabis.
However he denied a charge of common assault which the prosecution said happened earlier in the day when a neighbour intervened in a row with his ex in Wellington Road, off Elm Grove.
And he also denied a separate charge of drug driving which happened in Lewes some weeks earlier, on 29 April in Mayhew Way.
Prosecuting, Chandula Dassanayake said Warren, of Blois Road, Lewes, had refused to stop his vehicle in Elm Grove before driving it dangerously in Richmond Terrace and Morley Street.
He said as well as causing damage to the police cars and eight parked cars, he drove at 50mph in a 20mph zone.
After he was arrested, he was taken to the Royal Sussex County Hospital where he refused to give a specimen for drink or drug driving.
Defending, Mark McDonald-Loncke said his client was planning to go and stay with his mother in Medway .
Deputy district judge Rebecca Channon gave Warren an interim ban ahead of his two trial dates, one for the drug driving and one for the common assault, which have been scheduled for 15 and 16 February next year respectively.
She released him on conditional bail, with a direction not to contact the alleged victim of the common assault, Samuel Richards.
In yesterday’s article it was reported that previously officers were called to reports of an intoxicated man in a car verbally abusing members of the public in Lewes Road, near Elm Grove, at about 4.50pm. Being verbally abused by a drunk is such a commonplace occurrence in Brighton I’m surprised that anyone bothered to report it…
Isn’t that quite bad though, if it’s normalised to such a state that we simply get on with it?
What a bellend