Gloucestershire officer who drove police vehicles while disqualified is jailed

A police officer who drove marked vehicles while disqualified and uninsured has been jailed for 12 weeks by a judge who said his actions were a “gross breach of trust”.

Miles Caffull, who was a response officer for Gloucestershire Constabulary, was disqualified from driving for six months on May 26 last year after accumulating at least 12 points on his licence from four previous speeding offences.

The 26-year-old did not tell his sergeant he had been banned from driving and continued to drive to and from work, as well as driving marked police vehicles on blue lights during the course of his duties, prosecutor Owen Beale told Kidderminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday.

The officer admitted to the force that he had been driving while disqualified only on June 20 last year.

Mr Beale said: “He made the decision to drive to and from work and whilst carrying out his duties as a serving police officer using marked vehicles on blue lights.

“He did finally report his disqualification to his sergeant on June 20, the day the local newspaper reported that he had been disqualified from driving.

“It was only at that moment it came to light to Gloucestershire Constabulary.”

At Monday’s court hearing, Caffull, of Saxon Way in Ledbury, Herefordshire, pleaded guilty to driving a Kia while disqualified at Westgate Island in Gloucester on May 26 and driving a motor vehicle without insurance at Westgate Island and elsewhere on the same day.

Mitigating for Caffull, Colin Phillips said his client had been a person of previously good character.

He said: “He accepts he has been stupid and he doesn’t understand entirely why he did what he did and what led him to do it.

“If he had reported his disqualification to his sergeant immediately, he could have been put on other duties. He has lost his job for no particular reason.”

The former officer stood with his hands clasped as district judge Ian Strongman sentenced him to 12 weeks in prison.

Judge Strongman said the officer, who resigned from the force last week, had committed a “gross and repeated flagrant breach” of the law.

He said: “You had at least 12 points on your driving licence and as a serving police officer, you should have known better.

“You had plenty of opportunity to realise your offending was going to get you in deep water.

“It is a tremendous coincidence that it was the day the press wrote about it in the paper that you decided to tell your sergeant.”

Caffull was led away by custody officers after the judge decided not to suspend the 12-week sentence, telling him he must serve half of that in prison, and disqualified him from driving for 18 months.