A FORMER Metropolitan police officer who crashed a riot van he had taken from a high-security police station after a night out was today jailed for 90 days.
Geoff Jackson, who turned 28 yesterday, resigned from the force days after causing £2,300 worth of damage to the vehicle.
Today Jackson, of London Road, High Wycombe, pleaded with District Judge Daphne Wickham for leniency after admitting he had let “himself, his family, the police and the public” down.
But the judge told Jackson outside of work his “life was a mess”, after the defendant ran up gambling debts of £35,000.
She told Liverpudlian Jackson “something was clearly going wrong in your life”.
City of Westminster Magistrates' Court heard the defendant had consumed seven pints of Guinness, three whiskeys and a gin and tonic while on a night out with friends on January 18.
Emma Scheer, prosecuting, said Jackson had contacted his partner – who he has now split up from – to say he would get the last train from London back to High Wycombe.
She said: “Unfortunately he missed the last train and went back to Paddington Green police station, where he was based.
“He took a police carrier vehicle, which was required for operational duty the next day.”
Ms Scheer told the court Jackson drove along the A40 for around two and a half miles at speeds between 73 and 76 mph on a road with a speed limit of 50mph.
The front offside wheel collided with the road's central reservation, Ms Scheer said, and came off the van.
Jackson drove for a further kilometre before stopping the van. He twice attempted to restart the engine.
He then turned off the interior lights and fell asleep in the back of the van – meaning police officers called to the scene could not spot him.
CCTV footage at the police station proved Jackson had taken the vehicle.
But he was not found for a further five hours – after the van had been towed to a nearby garage.
Jackson was breathalysed and found to have a reading of 49 mg of alcohol in his bloodstream.
He opted to have a blood test, but this did not take place for another five and a half hours – by which time Jackson's blood-alcohol reading had dropped back below the legal drink-drive limit.
Jackson gave a no comment interview when spoken to by officers, before he resigned the following Monday morning, January 21.
The defendant told the court he had found work for a security firm and was awaiting the results of entry exams into the Oxfordshire fire brigade.
He said he would not be able to continue his work if he was banned from driving.
Accepting responsibility for what happened, he told the judge: “I have completely let myself down, I have let the Metropolitan police service down, I have let my family down and I have let the public down. What I did was wrong.
“A big part of my life was being a police officer. I enjoyed it and I enjoyed serving the public.
“One thing I have struggled with since is not being able to serve the public any more.”
He said he had tried to “shield” his court appearances from his family as he was ashamed of what had happened.
He told the court his family only found out about the crash after reading press reports.
Jackson's father is a retired police officer and his brother a serving one, he said.
“I don't believe I'm a bad person,” he said. “I am trying to rebuild my life.”
Sentencing Jackson, District Judge Wickham said: “With the massive lack of self awareness of your problems, it was almost inevitable something awful was going to happen.
“Fortunately that piece of careless driving did not hurt any member of the public or apparently yourself. Nothing else, I'm afraid, was positive.
“You did your day job extremely well but the other side of your life was a mess.”
She said Jackson faced “a long path to recovery”.
He was sentenced to 90 days in prison for taking a vehicle without consent. He will serve half that sentence.
Jackson was also disqualified from driving for six months and fined £500 for careless driving.
There was no separate charge for driving without insurance, which he had pleaded guilty to on his last appearance at court. He was also ordered to pay £1,000 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
He did not face drink-driving charges due to a lack of evidence.
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