A man who has served four prison sentences for driving while disqualified was back behind bars today after being convicted of the crime for the SIXTH time.
Police received a tip-off that Michael Manson was behind the wheel of a Land Rover Discovery on a country track near Dingwall.
When officers went to intercept the vehicle, it was travelling at high speed and when it eventually stopped the 25-year-old joiner fled the scene.
Manson was caught soon after and it emerged he was already banned and it was the sixth time he had done it, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
Manson admitted the offence yesterday as well as an associated no insurance charge.
He also pleaded guilty to careless driving and travelling at excessive speed on March 31 2020 between Docharty Brae and Tulloch Castle Drive.
Sheriff David Sutherland, who noted that Manson had served four previous prison sentences for similar offences, jailed him for a total of nine months and banned him from driving for five years.
Fiscal depute David Morton said: “Police received intelligence that a disqualified driver was driving in a rural area in Ross-shire popular with dog walkers.
“A Land Rover Discovery turned onto the track at excessive speed and two dog owners and their dog felt it necessary to take evasive action and go onto the verge as it passed.”
Mr Morton added that this was reported to police, who pursued Manson a short time later.
“He initially left the vehicle but they caught up with him,” the prosecutor added.
Defence solicitor John MacColl told the court: “My client lives with his partner and three children. He works as a joiner at a small business.
“He is the breadwinner and a jail sentence would have serious repercussions on his family, his career and on his employees.
“He was entitled to drive on the field but not on the track. He had been fixing a vehicle and took it for a test drive to test the suspension and was bumping around on the track.”
Sheriff Sutherland told Manson, of Ross Wynd, Dingwall: “You have been disqualified from driving on five previous occasions.
“Yet, here we have another which shows you have no concern for orders of the court or for people’s safety.”
