Patrick Duggan (Image: Gwent Police)
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A motorist who has not held a driving licence for more than three decades has been sent to prison after ramming a police car so badly during a pursuit through Abertillery that the £31,000 vehicle was scrapped.
Patrick Duggan, 51, of Hotwell Road, Bristol, was handed one year and seven months at Cardiff Crown Court and banned from the roads for three years and nine months.
The pursuit
Prosecutor James Evans told the court the pursuit unfolded on June 30, taking officers through Rose Heyworth Road, Oak Street and Castle Street. Dashcam footage played to the court captured Duggan braking sharply without warning and then reversing into the front of the pursuing officer’s car – a manoeuvre he repeated more than once. The recording picks up the officer stating his vehicle remained driveable, and the pursuit carried on.
The bill for the damage came to £28,000, rendering the car a write-off.
Hiding in brambles
Duggan eventually abandoned the vehicle, dropping down a steep embankment and concealing himself in dense brambles. Retrieving him proved a struggle for officers, who needed a police dog to locate him before hauling him back up the slope.
“He was being as difficult as he possibly could,” said Mr Evans.
Custody and breath test
At the police station Duggan withheld his name and personal details, insisting he had only been a passenger. A breath test returned a reading of 47 micrograms – 12 above the legal ceiling of 35.
Cost to the officer
The officer left with neck and shoulder pain that lingered for what Mr Evans described as an “extended period”. He required two physiotherapy sessions, paying £207 out of his own pocket.
A licence he never held
Duggan’s disqualification dates back to 1994, the result of a run of motoring offences, meaning he has effectively never held a licence. His record runs to 54 convictions covering 274 offences, seven of them for dangerous or reckless driving. The most recent came in November 2022, for dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.
Defence mitigation
Peter Donnison, for the defence, described his client as a vulnerable adult whose life had been marked by hardship from childhood onwards. He told the court Duggan had suffered abuse at boarding school and, 11 years ago, lost his 19-year-old son to suicide.
Mr Donnison said no support had been put in place following Duggan’s most recent release from custody. Attempts to contact probation came to nothing, his client being told they could not engage with him because he was not on their books, and he could not obtain a fresh supply of medication once his had run out.
The decisions Duggan made were poor ones, Mr Donnison said, but he was determined to avoid returning to his former way of life and wanted to break from it.
Sentencing
Duggan pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified, dangerous driving, criminal damage, driving above the alcohol limit, and obstructing or resisting a constable in the execution of duty.
Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke passed the sentence with dangerous driving as the lead offence. Duggan must also pay a £187 statutory surcharge within six months of his release.
