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Suffolk motorist will kill someone, warns victim as man convicted for 43rd time of driving while disqualified

10-month prison sentence and 12-month ban for serial lawbreaker... but he says it won't stop him...

A motorist convicted and jailed for driving while disqualified for the 43rd time told Suffolk police that it wouldn't stop him driving again, one of his victims has said t it is only a matter of time before the motorist, John Moir, kills.

Simon Jacobs who was left him with life changing injuries by Moir's driving in 2010 made the comments after Moir was found guilty for the 43rd time of driving while disqualified. The motorist has been jailed for four months for that offence, with other charges taking his total sentence to ten months, and he has also been banned from driving for a year. It is the latest of a number of cases highlighting the extent to which some people repeatedly ignore driving bans.

Moir, aged 46 and from Rushmere St Andrew in Suffolk, pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified, driving without insurance and two counts of theft, reports the Ipswich Star.

Previously, in 2010 Moir, who has amassed a total of 218 driving offences, received an 18 month prison term following an incident that left pedestrian Simon Jacobs with what were described as life changing injuries.

Reacting to news of Moir’s latest sentence, Mr Jacobs told the Ipswich Star: “He has left me with a life sentence, I will never get over my injuries.

“As a result of my brain injury I suffer something called ballistic rage because I can’t work, but this has left me seething.

“When he ran into me he got 18 months, but only served half.

“The next time it was 14 months and now 10.

“It is an insult. I believe it is only a matter of time before he kills someone. I was lucky but next time things could be very different. I just find it ludicrous, it is laughable.

“The justice system needs to listen up, they are playing a waiting game – eventually I believe he will kill someone.”

Moir’s latest driving ban was for two years, imposed in September 2011. South East Suffolk Magistrates Court has now replaced that with a new, 12-month ban.

He’s by no means the only driver in Britain to have been found guilty of driving while disqualified on dozens of occasions.

In 2010, The Sun reported that mobile DJ Thomas Feely from Leeds had notched up his 113th motoring offence, and had been jailed on more than 30 occasions.

As he received another prison sentence for driving while disqualified, apparently the 55th time he had been convicted of that offence, his defence lawyer warned, “He’ll be back.”

In 2008, former nightclub bouncer Jamie Manderson from Swindon was banned for five years after his 51st conviction for driving while disqualified.

The first of those was secured when he was aged just 15, and Metro, reporting on that 2008 conviction, said Manderson had never actually held a driving licence.

His lawyer described him as a “likeable idiot” - one who, it transpires, in 1998 hit a 12-year-old cyclist while driving a getaway car involved in a robbery.

Last year, a sheriff in Scotland handed a lifetime ban from driving to 42-year-old Andrew Winsborough of Kelty, Fife for life after he was convicted for the fifteenth time of driving while disqualified.

According to the BBC, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis also described the maximum 12-month prison sentence that applies in Scotland for driving while disqualified as “wholly inadequate” and called for it to be increased.

That is still harsher than the maximum six-month sentence that applies in England and Wales.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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brakesmadly | 11 years ago
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I was quite pleased to hear that a cowboy builder who did some 'work' for me got recently caught over the limit for the 3rd time and driving while still disqualified from that one. He'd been banned before and ignored it so this time he got 4 months prison, plus a 5 year ban and suspended sentence. If he gets caught driving whilst disqualified when he gets out after his 4 months that automatically becomes a 5 year sentence. And given his history I know plenty of people ready to report him!

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