Man jailed after crash with police officer in Bournemouth

Sameh Abuseif knocked the officer off his unmarked bike, before driving off and leaving him in the road. When he was later arrested, the defendant was found to be eight times the limit of benzoylecgonine – a breakdown product of cocaine. Prosecutor Stuart Ellacott suggested Abuseif, 40, had taken cocaine “fairly recently” in relation to the incident.

He had also been disqualified from driving at the time. Abuseif was first stopped by police while driving a Mercedes Coupe in the area of Exter Park Road in Bournemouth[1]. Officers approached the vehicle and made attempts to arrest Abuseif’s front seat passenger for a separate matter.

Once the passenger was out of the car, and with the door still open, Abuseif began to “reverse away quickly”. His “dangerous manoeuvre” saw the car door strike a police officer and the passenger, knocking them both to the floor. The officer suffered minor injuries which saw him left with muscle pain and stiffness in the days that followed.

Abuseif then fled the scene but was spotted around 20 minutes later in Portarlington Road by an officer on an unmarked bike. When the officer pulled up by Abuseif and asked him to hand over his keys, the defendant “drove through” the bike, seeing the officer knocked off. The officer suffered injuries to his shin and shoulder, and the police motorbike was damaged.

The defendant left the scene but was later arrested at a car park at the Homewaye House in Westbourne. His first response was “I didn’t know it was the police”. Abuseif appeared at Bournemouth Crown Court[2] on Tuesday, January 9, charged with failing to stop after an accident, drug driving, dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.

He pleaded guilty to the charges, but maintained he did not realise it was police trying to stop him, and said he did not hear officers shout “police”. Defending, Harry Price Smith added that his client was “concerned that someone was trying to attack [his passenger]” in the initial incident, and so drove off. His Honour Judge Robert Pawson said this suggestion was “manifestly false” and “implausible”.

He noted the officer on the unmarked bike had a visible police badge and statements from the officers who said they shouted “police”. He also queried why the defendant didn’t phone 999 or call for help if he believed his passenger was being attacked. Mitigating, Mr Price Smith suggested a suspended sentence would benefit Abuseif as the sole carer for his wife, who suffers from a neurological condition.

He told the court: “Her disorder means she effectively becomes paralysed in bed “It is often the defendant who has to call paramedics to get her into hospital. “There would be no one there to contact 999 for her.” Addressing the drug driving, Mr Price Smith added: “He tells me he is no longer taking any drugs – he said last time was this incident.

It seems to have been a wake-up call for him.” His Honour Judge Robert Pawson said: “It was obvious your driving was highly dangerous, and impaired, how highly I don’t know, by the consumption of drugs. “Whether or not you knew it to be police, factually, you attempted to evade police on both occasions.

“Your driving resulted in injury to at least two others.”

Abuseif, of Bradburne Road in Bournemouth, was jailed for 13 months.

He was also disqualified from driving for a period of three years to begin after his release.

References

1. ^ Bournemouth (www.bournemouthecho.co.uk)
2. ^ Court (www.bournemouthecho.co.uk)