Fresh ban for crash driver

BANNED driver Frederick Couzens has been given a suspended prison sentence after admitting he crashed into the back of a car when behind the wheel of a Range Rover. Couzens, who had been banned for 10 years for drink-driving in 1997, had been helping to

BANNED driver Frederick Couzens has been given a suspended prison sentence after admitting he crashed into the back of a car when behind the wheel of a Range Rover.

Couzens, who had been banned for 10 years for drink-driving in 1997, had been helping to move some pigs before the crash.

He left the scene of the accident and failed to tell police what had happened. But a member of the public wrote down the number plate of the Range Rover and Couzens was traced, Ely magistrates were told on Thursday.

Couzens, 64, of Prickwillow Road, Queen Adelaide, had admitted driving while disqualified and without insurance, driving without due care and attention, and failing to stop and failing to report the accident on September 30.

The accident happened in Prickwillow Road when Couzens hit the rear of a Vauxhall Vectra that was waiting to turn right, said prosecutor Matthew Bradbury.

Explaining why he drove away, Couzens told police: "I didn't know whether to grab him and thump him, so I came home instead.

"I was furious with him and don't know what would have happened if I had stopped."

Mitigating, John Aspinall said Terry Brown had lent Couzens the Range Rover after he helped him move some pigs.

"This was a fairly standard rear shunt - he failed to pay enough attention to the car in front of him," he said.

Couzens had thought his driving ban lasted only eight years and so had come to an end.

But he had panicked after the accident because he had no licence, he said.

Couzens' five-month prison sentence was suspended for two years, he must carry out 50 hours unpaid work and was given a further five-year driving ban.