‘Reckless’ drink driver drove from Essex to Kettering crashing his car in Windmill Avenue going the wrong way round roundabout
A drink driver who sustained a head injury after crashing his car on a roundabout in Kettering has been handed a suspended sentence and disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Jaspreet Bassi was spared jail despite embarking on a 100-mile journey from Grays in Essex to Windmill Avenue in Kettering – while nearly one-and-a-half times over the alcohol limit.
The 34-year-old’s journey finally ended abruptly at 8.30pm on September 20 last year, after he drove his Peugeot 208 car the wrong way around the junction and collided with the curb substantially damaging the front wheel and setting off the airbag.
An SD card seized from the car had captured Bassi’s three-hour journey from Essex to Northamptonshire, including multiple phone calls he had made. In one conversation, he stated he was ‘drunk’.
Response officer PC Luke Feakin, who led the investigation, said: “The clips on the SD card clearly showed Jaspreet Bassi’s driving that day fell far below the expected standard of a careful and competent driver.
“During his three-hour journey from Essex to Northamptonshire, it was more by luck than judgement that Bassi’s actions did not cause a serious collision after he admitted he was drunk in the conversations he had along the way.
“The fact that he was willing to not only put his own life at risk but that of innocent road users, just shows the sheer recklessness he had, and I’m pleased the courts have dealt with this driver robustly.”
It was after a member of the public reported the single-vehicle crash to police officers they found the damaged car.
They were directed to a nearby address where Bassi, of De Marnham Close in West Bromwich, identified himself as the driver and told officers that he had sustained a head injury following a road rage incident.
Suspecting Bassi was in fact intoxicated, he was asked to provide a roadside breath test which he failed. He was arrested before being released under investigation after providing a blood sample for analysis at Kettering General Hospital.
In a sequence of three-minute clips found on the SD card, data provided evidence of Bassi’s dangerous and poor standard of driving which included several near misses and ultimately ended with him driving the wrong way around the roundabout, endangering other road users.
When his analysis sample returned a reading of 124 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood – the legal limit is 80mg – Bassi was summoned via a postal requisition to appear before Northampton Magistrates’ Court.
On January 30, Bassi pleaded guilty to both driving a motor vehicle dangerously and when the alcohol level was above the limit and his case was committed to the county’s crown court for sentencing.
Earlier this month (June 4), Bassi was sentenced at Northampton Crown Court to 12 months imprisonment, suspended for 24 months and ordered to complete 200 hours unpaid work as well as a 25-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
In addition to this, Bassi was disqualified from driving for 12 months and must sit an extended test before regaining his licence. He was also ordered to pay £150 court costs and £187 victim surcharge.
In 2024, 31 people never returned home safely to their loved ones following a collision in Northamptonshire and 243 required urgent medical assistance for serious or life-changing injuries.