Sutton axe man ‘drove like lunatic’ hitting other vehicles and crashing during rush hour on A1

Lee Briggs hurled two mobile phones out of a white Audi and then drove off at speed on the Great North Road at 5.30pm on February 12, Ellesse Taylor, prosecuting, told Nottingham Crown Court.

It was very dark and wet when Briggs, who had a small hatchet in the footwell, drove onto the pavement in Collingham and collided with a woman's car.

Other motorists reported him “flying past” and narrowly missing vehicles as he swerved around them, with one witness describing it as “the worst driving he had seen in his 18 years” behind the wheel.

Briggs crashed into the central reservation on the A1 and tried to force his way between two vehicles, taking off a wing mirror.

He got out and began jumping on car bonnets. He tried to open one woman's locked door and punched the side window with such force her car shook.

He began kicking another woman’s windscreen and when she drove forward slowly to try and remove him he sat down and began punching the glass.

Briggs eventually slid off the bonnet and shouted, “I have a knife and I’ll stab you,” when two men approached him.

Police found a woman, who had been a passenger in the Audi, crouching nearby and told them “he had gone crazy and thought people were after him.”

She said he was “driving like a lunatic and thought he was going to kill them both by driving into the back of a lorry.”

Briggs was found on a grass verge at 7.30pm and taken to hospital with head injuries where a blood test showed he had 240 microgrammes of cocaine when the limit is 50 microgrammes.

The Audi, which belonged to his girlfriend, had false number plates and the correct ones were found in the boot.

The court heard he has 18 previous convictions for 63 offences, including dangerous driving. He was banned for five years and jailed for eight weeks in March last year for driving without due care and attention and failing to stop.

Luc Chignell, mitigating, said Briggs' drug abuse was a consequence of his mental health problems.

“For some time he has been in and out of custody,” he said. “He has come to the realisation he has mental health difficulties. The four months he has spent on remand in prison have been valuable.”

There is a genuine prospect of rehabilitation now Briggs is medicated, Mr Chignell added.

Briggs, aged 40, of Bath Street, Sutton, admitted dangerous driving and fraudulent use of a registration plate on February 16. He initially denied drug driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance, possession of a blade, and threatening behaviour, before pleading guilty on April 28.

On Thursday Mr Recorder Dawson told him: “It’s difficult to summarise just how bad your driving was on the night in question. The most significant mitigation is the psychiatric report.”

Briggs received a 16-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, with 35 rehabilitation days and 150 hours of unpaid work. He was banned for three years.