Driver who fled in wrong direction at 180 km/h convicted for eighth time of driving without a licence

A suspect who drove in the wrong direction at 180 kilometres per hour on a road near the municipality of Campillos in the north of Malaga province has been arrested by the Local Police. On noticing the presence of a patrol, the driver stepped on the accelerator, which led to a chase on the A-365 road, limited to 90 km/h, forcing drivers to brake and pull over to the hard shoulder to avoid colliding head-on with him.

The reason for his actions, as the police discovered after catching up with him, was that he was driving without a licence due to the total loss of points. And it was not the first time: he had up to seven convictions handed down by various criminal courts in Malaga for driving without a licence, with sentences ranging from six to nine months.

On this occasion, according to the ruling, to which SUR has had access, he has been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for the offence of reckless driving in conjunction with an offence of driving without a licence, with the aggravating circumstance of multiple offences. The Malaga provincial court has ratified this sentence, which was handed down in the first instance by Malaga criminal court 4.

As described in the evidence, the events occurred at around 8.25pm on 14 December 2021, when the suspect was driving an Opel Astra without the required authorisation to drive. Upon spotting the presence of the Local Police office, he fled in the car, ignoring the officers’ flashing lights and sirens ordering him to stop.

Malaga criminal court 4 handed down a conviction for these crimes, after which the defence filed an appeal in which it alleged that the principle of the presumption of innocence of its client had been violated as the acts did not constitute the offences with which he was charged.

The provincial court, however, has dismissed the appeal, considering that the suspect was clearly identified by the municipal police officers, who testified before the court as to how the escape took place, his conduct thereby constituting the offences against road safety for which he has been convicted. In addition to upholding the sentence, the court has ordered the man to cover the payment of the legal costs incurred in the processing of this final appeal.