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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
'Stupid' Nottingham dad jumped out of moving car during high-speed police chase
A Nottingham father who owns three businesses 'was stupid in the extreme' when he jumped out of a moving car during a high-speed police chase. Nottingham Crown Court was told how Jayden Greenfield had a passenger in the Mercedes when he carried out the dangerous manoeuvre in an attempt to flee. The 26-year-old, who has twin daughters aged seven, also veered towards a marked vehicle in an apparent attempt to ram it off the road during the pursuit through Bulwell. But as the case is more than three years old and he has stayed out of trouble since, he has escaped an immediate prison term. Handing him a 12-month jail term, suspended for 18 months, Judge Steven Coupland said: 'On that day the police had reasonable grounds to stop and speak to you but you did not want to be arrested. I accept you panicked but what you did was criminal. READ MORE: Nottingham city centre shop worker and 3 police officers injured during incident in Victoria Centre READ MORE: Love locks on Nottingham bridge to be taken down - but 'lovely meaning' to be honoured 'You drove off from them and your driving was incredibly dangerous. You were driving in residential streets and twice the speed limit, this was the middle of the day. 'Your turns, on occasion, saw you drive on the wrong side of the road where you had no control and you could have hit someone. At one point you veered towards the police car and you then abandoned that car when it was still moving despite having a passenger on board. Fortunately it stopped due to the emergency handbrake but you are lucky there was not a collision and lucky no one was harmed. 'I make it plain that if I were dealing with you nearer the time you did this you would be going to prison but we are now three years on and, since that time, you have demonstrated what you can do by staying out of trouble and running three businesses.' Paul Stimson, prosecuting, said the chase began in Commercial Road, Bulwell, on the afternoon of March 2, 2022. He said the police wanted to speak to Greenfield about an unrelated matter but when they started to follow him he accelerated off at speed. The prosecutor said: 'He reached 40mph in a 20mph limit and accelerated at high speed on Ravenshead Road, failing to stop. At one point the police car went to overtake him and signalled for him to pull over but he did not. 'He then made what was described as 'a jolty movement' with his car towards the police car in an apparent attempt to ram it off the road. He then braked hard, leaving him on the wrong side of the road and got out while it was still moving at speed and went to a nearby house where he was arrested.' Greenfield, of Leybourne Drive, between Bestwood and Top Valley, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving. Barry Grennan, mitigating, said his client has a partner of 14 years with whom he has twin daughters aged seven. He said he also runs three businesses, one buying and selling cars and two which involve renting out and doing up properties. The barrister said: 'He has no excuse for the offence of dangerous driving, it was stupid and he drove in a dangerous way, particularly jumping out of the car while it was still moving. 'If he could turn back the clock he would, he has jeopardised everything. It was an overreaction because he had a knife in the car which he uses for fishing and other things. It was stupid in the extreme.' As part of the suspended sentence order, the judge ordered the defendant to carry out 100 hours unpaid work and to attend 20 rehabilitation sessions. He also ordered hom to pay £1,630 prosecution costs and disqualified him from driving for a year.
Daily Mail
10-07-2025
- Daily Mail
Speeding driver, 31, who hit and killed woman, 89, on mobility scooter after taking cocaine is jailed for four years
A speeding driver has been jailed for four years after ploughing into an 89-year-old great-grandmother as she crossed a road on her mobility scooter while heading to buy vegetables for a family dinner. Rayner Middleton, 31, pleaded guilty to causing the 'tragic and senseless' death of Doreen Raynor by careless driving in a city centre while she had an excess of a cocaine metabolite in her body. A court heard she was 'aggressively' travelling at almost 50mph in a 30mph zone at the wheel of an Audi when she struck the pensioner. The great-great-grandmother, who was just a month shy of her 90th birthday, was rushed to hospital following the incident in March 2023 but pronounced dead hours later after suffering multiple injuries. Sentencing Middleton, Judge Steven Coupland said the victim's family's future 'will forever be marked by an empty space at the table and a blank space in photographs.' He told the defendant: 'I accept you did not set out to kill or harm anyone that day but the reality is you should not have been driving. 'The by-product of your cocaine use was still in your body and was twice the legal limit. You chose to drive in a way that was wholly inappropriate.' Prosecution barrister Nicholas Bleaney told the court, filled with members of both the defendant's and victim's families that Mrs Raynor 'had some mobility issues due to an old injury.' He added: 'She used an electric mobility scooter on most days, this being a device to ensure she retains as much of her independence as possible.' He told the court that Mrs Raynor left her home at 9.45am on the day of her death to buy vegetables to make a Sunday dinner for her family. She had just passed Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena when she was hit on March 4 2023, causing her 'to be thrown out of the scooter causing serious injuries', Mr Bleaney said. She died later that day at Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham. Nottingham Crown Court heard Middleton, who sat dabbing her eyes with a tissue in the dock of the city's crown court, consumed drink and drugs the night before she went to pick up her son. She accepted drinking glasses of baileys and rum the night before, but tested below the legal limit for alcohol when breathalysed at the scene. But the court heard Middleton, of Arnold, Nottingham, had more than double the legal limit of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, in her system at the time of the crash. The court heard that the traffic lights turned amber as the defendant was driving through the crossing, while the pedestrian light for Mrs Raynor was red when she entered the road on her scooter. Mr Bleaney told how shortly after 9.45am, another driver saw Middleton, who was on her way to pick up her eight-year-old son from her mother's house to take him to a football match, park up at a set of traffic lights in her black Audi A1 before accelerating away and pulling in front of his car. Mr Bleaney said: 'He saw the lights change and Mrs Raynor crossing from right to left, and saw the brake lights of the defendant's Audi come on. But there was a collision that caused her to be thrown out of her scooter and suffer very serious injuries.' The prosecutor added that Middleton told police at the scene: 'I was basically driving up here, as I have come the lady has driven out so I have hit her.' The court heard Middleton, a single mother-of-one, was travelling at 46mph before the accident, and accepted she activated her brakes at around 43mph - hitting Mrs Raynor, a widow, at approximately 27mph. He added that Middleton, a paid carer for her mother, was interviewed by police three times and denied taking recreational drugs, also claiming she was driving at 26 or 27mph - something Mr Bleaney said was 'demonstrably not true'. Middleton also denied she was 'rushing' to pick up her son, but Mr Bleaney said the timings she had provided 'suggests there was some rushing going on'. He accepted Mrs Raynor had crossed the road while the pedestrian light showed a 'red man' - but said: 'The sad fact is that if she had been travelling at speed she should have done Mrs Raynor would have got across the junction. 'She was driving at a speed that is inappropriate for the prevailing road conditions. It is not the Crown's case that this lady is unfit to drive. The key feature of this case is speed.' Two of Mrs Raynor's children read out their victim impact statements at court, with daughter Melanie Frearson telling the judge she was 'horrified' at being told what speed Middleton had been driving at. She added: 'Our mum was known to everyone as 'Mar' and she had 13 children in total - one of them was an abandoned child - but she still took her in which tells you about the sort of person she was. 'She suffered sadness and tragedy but despite this, she was the most kind person, she did not judge another person. 'She would always say 'they are someone's child'. She was the kindest, caring, most giving and loving person and she was the strongest person you could wish for.' Mrs Raynor's eldest living son, Michael Raynor, described his mother's death as 'tragic and senseless'. He said: 'Your reckless and irresponsible decision to drive under these conditions shattered our family and left a gaping hole in the lives of all who had known her.' Defending Middleton, Simon Eckersley said: 'Plainly she was going too fast. Had she been travelling at an appropriate speed, there still would have been a collision, but a collision with less impact.' Mr Eckersley added 'She always denied and she continues to deny driving while unfit through drugs, and the Crown now do not assert she was unfit through drugs. 'The key factor in this case was her speed. In her pre-sentence report she now acknowledges what she's done and the report author recognises she is remorseful. She genuinely wishes she could undo the harm she's caused.' The judge also disqualified Middleton from driving for four years. Mrs Raynor began her working life at Nottingham Children's Hospital at the age of 18 before moving on to the city's Savoy Hotel. She then became a staty-at-home mother.
