A suspected drink-driver who overturned his pick-up truck and attempted to leave the scene of the collision has been banned from the roads for 17 months.
Richard James Rucastle, 24, from Thornton-in-Lonsdale, Ingleton, was convicted of failing to provide a specimen for analysis at Harrogate and Skipton Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday (26 October 2016).
Rucastle crashed the blue Mitsubishi L200 near Thornton-in-Lonsdale just after midnight on 6 June 2015.
Officers located and arrested him five minutes later after he made off from the crash scene as a passenger in another vehicle.
He failed to provide both a road-side breath specimen and a subsequent evidential specimen for analysis, which is an offence.
As well as being disqualified from driving, Rucastle was also ordered to carry out 100 hours’ unpaid work over the next 12 months, made to pay £400 costs and an £85 surcharge.
Traffic Constable David Minto, of North Yorkshire Police’s Roads Policing Group, said:
The sentence handed to Richard Rucastle is very pleasing.
He blatantly flouted the law and stupidly put himself and others in danger by getting behind the wheel when clearly unfit to drive.
This case sends out a clear message out that North Yorkshire Police will use all available tools to bring offending drivers to justice and keep our roads safe.
