Man who got a 'Christmas present' let-off from judge is jailed - after returning to old ways - The Coventry Observer

Man who got a 'Christmas present' let-off from judge is jailed - after returning to old ways

Coventry Editorial 29th Apr, 2019   0

A man who had received a Christmas present from a judge when he was given a chance to prove he could make a break from his past has been jailed after going back to his old ways.

Adrian Mason had appeared at Warwick Crown Court in December for taking a car without consent, dangerous driving and having a knuckleduster he carried since being stabbed in Coventry.

After hearing that Mason had moved out of the city and was trying to start a new life working on a farm, Judge Peter Cooke gave him a chance by deferring sentence for four months.

But at the resumed hearing, prosecutor Ian Speed said that since then Mason has been convicted of further offences of shoplifting and driving while disqualified.




So Judge Cooke jailed Mason (44) of Goring Road, Stoke, Coventry, before moving to the farm in Meer Lane, Lutterworth, for 14 months and banned him from driving for three-and-a-half years.

At the original hearing in December, Mr Speed said that in the early hours of August 4 last year, a police officer saw a stolen Mazda MX5 being driven on false number plates.


Other officers were asked to assist, and tried to stop the Mazda, which had been taken during a burglary in Nuneaton, in the Wood End area of Coventry.

The Mazda, driven by Mason, sped away, reaching speeds of 70mph in residential streets as he drove first to the Longford area and then headed south towards Gosford.

But after a pursuit of around six miles, the Mazda ‘came to an abrupt stop’ as Mason took a corner into St George’s Road and collided with a wall.

Mason, whose previous convictions included a robbery in 2010 and having an offensive weapon in 2016, was arrested, and in the car officers found some cash and a knuckleduster.

When he was questioned, Mason said he had borrowed the car from a friend and claimed he did not know it was stolen, but had panicked because he did not have a driving licence.

He accepted the knuckleduster was his, explaining that he had been stabbed in the past, and that ‘the people who did it are still out there.’

David Murray, defending, said in December: “Given the substantial threat to his life some years ago, he has taken to carrying this weapon in case of a subsequent attack on him.”

But he said Mason, who had no knowledge of the burglary in which the car was taken, and his partner had moved out of Coventry to help her uncle on his farm.

“Among his skillsets, farming seems to be one of them, and he’s assisting her uncle on the farm,” he observed.

Judge Cooke commented: “What’s going through my mind is that at first blush this has got immediate custody written all over it.

“But it couldn’t be a long sentence, and potentially the move out of Coventry to a rural environment, where he’s living and working on a farm, if he can keep away from the temptation to drive vehicles, I wonder whether I might just give him a chance.”

And he told Mason: “Well, Mr Mason, it really is Christmas isn’t it?  I’m going to defer this case for four months.

“The change that’s come about in your life is a very recent one, but potentially it could be a real break from the past.  Let’s see.”

He stressed that to avoid an immediate prison sentence, Mason was not to re-offend and was to comply with an interim driving disqualification.

And after hearing of Mason’s further convictions, he jailed him for 12 months for the dangerous driving, which he said was ‘a bad case,’ with a consecutive two-month term for the knuckleduster.

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