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08
Apr
Unlicensed driver overtook and crashed into woman turning right in Starbeck
A man who only held a provisional driving licence has admitted to overtaking and crashing into a car when it was turning right in Starbeck.
Chandler Goff, 27, appeared at Harrogate Magistrates Court on Thursday (April 2) charged with four offences: driving without due care and attention; driving without a licence; failing to stop after a road accident and failing to report a road accident.
He admitted all the offences.
Prosecutor Alison Whiteley said a named woman was driving along the A59 Starbeck High Street on the evening of January 7 this year.
The woman said the road was wet at the time, but visibility was good.
As she approached the junction with Station View to turn right, she slowed down and indicated. She didn’t see any cars overtaking her when she checked her mirrors and began turning right onto the road.
However, the court heard, as she did so, Goff crashed into her.
Ms Whiteley said the defendant had overtaken the woman as she was turning right and collided with her car, which jolted to the left due to the impact.
Goff, of Stainmore Grove in Harrogate, didn’t stop or get out to speak to the woman. Instead, he just accelerated away.
The woman’s car bonnet “crumpled”, and she suffered pain in her right wrist, the court heard.
Ms Whiteley added:
[Victim] was not in a position to take the defendant’s registration number, but it was somehow publicised and on January 9, the defendant rang the police to report the crash. He reported it two days later.
When police asked Goff why he delayed reporting the crash, he said he had "a passenger in the car who didn’t want to get into trouble”.
The defendant has 13 offences on his record, but was last in court in 2016.
It also emerged Goff only held a provisional licence at the time of the crash, but he has since passed his driving test and got a full licence.
Defendant ‘drove home in a panic’ that day
Michelle Stewart, defending, described the incident as a “series of unfortunate events”.
She said Goff had gone out that day with “a friend who was supervising” his driving.
However, after receiving a worrying phone call from his pregnant partner, Goff “drove home in a panic”.
Ms Stewart said:
The supervising driver could not go with him, so Mr Goff drove home without a supervising driver. He accepts he was rushing to get home and he overtook the woman. He’s very sorry he didn’t stop.
The defendant didn’t stop at the scene of the collision as he “didn’t think there was much damage” and “wanted to get home to his partner”, the court heard.
Ms Stewart told the magistrates Goff didn’t call the police immediately as his partner was “still struggling and in pain”.
Goff was “only able to phone the police” two days later as he thought he would be arrested and “didn’t want to leave his partner on her own”, she added.
Goff passed his driving test on March 4 this year. He had bought the car he was driving on the day of the offence “in anticipation of passing his test”.
The case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.
Goff will return to Harrogate Magistrates Court on June 5 for sentence.
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