A drug-driving gas engineer from Swindon who failed to stop for police has been banned from the roads.

Sean Garry, 35, of Nythe Road, appeared at Swindon Magistrates' Court on August 20 and pleaded guilty to all offences.

He first attracted attention from police around half midnight on February 15 when he was driving a Vauxhall Vivaro van on Albion Street without any lights on.

Officers drove up behind him, flashing their blue lights to catch his attention, but he kept driving, so officers put their sirens on to indicate he should stop immediately.

Instead they noticed Garry speed up slightly in an attempt to evade police and the two officers who had noticed him were not trained for pursuit so they pulled back.

Shortly after, they noticed Garry was parked up on a side street with the driver’s-side door wide open while he was running off on foot.

They called for a dog and drone unit and he was eventually found and tested positive for the controlled drug benzoylecgonine and cocaine, where a drug test revealed there was 32 microgrammes of the class A substance per litre of blood.

His defence said Garry had a five-year-old son and had “dabbled with drugs” in 2022 during a mental health crisis and relapsed in February after his ex-partner was trying to stop him from seeing his son.

He added that Garry had taken the cocaine the previous night, parking the vehicle nearby and getting a taxi home, before coming back the following evening to pick up the van, when he was apprehended by officers.

He argued that the distance Garry was pursued was “only a couple hundred yards” and it was a “silly moment where he didn’t stop” because he panicked and impulsively decided to run off, but when he was arrested, he fully co-operated with roadside procedures and drug-testing.

The court heard how the self-employed gas engineer had recently obtained a mortgage and needed to be able to drive around for work to ensure he could still earn enough money to keep his home for himself and his son.

The magistrate told Garry: “It’s an unfortunate circumstance for you.

“It’s in your interest to stay off the drugs.”

He was disqualified from driving for one year and ordered to pay a £461 fine, surcharge of £184 and prosecution fees of £85, totalling £730.