Cocaine-fuelled Sheffield motorist in a Nissan Micra jailed after high-speed police pursuit

Sheffield Crown Court heard on May 24 how Dale Bamford, aged 28, of Hartley Brook Road, at Shiregreen, Sheffield, fled from police in a Nissan Micra during a 30 minute pursuit over nearly 20 miles between Penistone Road and the M1 motorway near to Tinsley Viaduct before he crashed.

Neil Coxon, prosecuting, said: “The pursuit comes to an end with the defendant effectively driving on the hard shoulder and colliding with the barrier and spinning his vehicle into the carriageway.”

Mr Coxon explained police had initially indicated for Bamford to pull-over in the early hours of January 16, last year, but he ignored them and accelerated away at 60mph in a 30mph zone on Penistone Road towards the M1 driving through give-way junctions.

Bamford entered the M1 at Junction 35a accelerating up to 80mph in wet conditions with icy roads before he reached Junction 35 and passed through several sets of traffic lights, according to Mr Coxon.

Mr Coxon said Bamford then entered the northbound carriageway of the M1 accelerating to 80mph before he turned his vehicle lights off in heavy rain and lost control on the hard shoulder and collided with a crash barrier.

Bamford’s vehicle span across three lanes of the M1 after the collision, according to Mr Coxon, and collided with a second crash barrier before he fled on foot across the southbound carriageway and was detained.

Mr Coxon said Bamford’s route included Penistone Road, Stocksbridge Bypass, the M1 motorway and Junction 34 near to Tinsley Viaduct as he attracted four police vehicles and at one stage reversed the wrong way down a road.

Bamford, who has previous convictions including two offences of dangerous driving, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and to driving with an excessive amount of a cocaine derivative in his system.

Daniel Ingham, defending, said: “He expressed a quite sensible view that it was very, very fortunate that no one was injured in his driving on that occasion and that in my submission shows a level of maturity.”

Mr Ingham added Bamford was struggling due to a relationship breakdown with his father and he was “self-medicating” by using cocaine.

The court heard Bamford is also due to be sentenced at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court in June for separate matters after he was convicted following a trial of a public order offence, failing to stop his vehicle and for failing to report an accident after another driving incident from November, 2020.

Recorder Jeremy Barnett told Bamford: “This type of driving by someone who was under the influence of class A drugs, who has already appeared before the court on two previous occasions for committing similar offences, and who commits these offences while on bail to the magistrates’ court for other driving matters must – as a warning to others – be subject to an immediate custodial sentence.

"I take the view the way in which you conducted yourself placed other road-users at severe risk of injury and possibly death.”

Recorder Barnett sentenced Bamford to 14 months of custody and disqualified him from driving for five years.