A dangerous driver who reached speeds of up to 100mph while trying to flee police has been jailed after he crashed and left one of his passengers with serious and enduring injuries.
Brandon Lee, formerly known as Brandon Thorburn, smashed into a wall on a bend on the A273 at Clayton at high speed, Lewes Crown Court was told.
Richard Bendall, prosecuting, said that PC Matt Berry spotted a blue Ford Fiesta driving over the speed limit up the A23 out of Brighton at about 2.20am on Friday 8 December 2023.
The brand new Fiesta was being driven by Lee, 28, who had only a provisional driving licence but no L plates. Lee sped away from the police car’s blue lights.
He took the slip road on to the A273 at Pyecombe where the speed limit is 50mph. Mr Bendall said that he took the brow of the hill near Jack and Jill Windmill at about 70mph.
There had been rain earlier so the road was wet, Mr Bendall told the court, and Lee ended up on the wrong side of the road.
When he reached the bend at the foot of the hill, he lost control and crashed into a wall. The crash destroyed the wall, a BT box and the car itself.
The prosecutor said: “Chloe Hammond, who was his rear seat passenger, was screaming in pain. She had a broken left leg, whiplash and was severely injured.
“She had told him a few times to slow down. He either wasn’t listening to her or couldn’t hear because of the volume of the music.”
Lee and his front seat passenger Danny Ray emerged relatively unscathed. The driver failed a roadside drug test having been using cannabis earlier.
The road was closed, Lee was arrested and charged with causing serious injury by dangerous driving and Miss Hammond was taken to hospital. Sussex Police said that she suffered life-changing injuries.
Mr Bendall told the court that Miss Hammond suffered two complex fractures of the left leg and a damaged left kneecap. She also suffered a chest injury and a resulting infection.
He read a statement by Miss Hammond, now 27, to the court in which she gave details of the lasting effects of her injuries including scarring and pains that still persisted.
She said that she still had a metal rod from her knee to her ankle and nerve damage in her foot. And as a result of weakness in her frequently swollen left leg, she had a fall and broke her right ankle.
Her mobility was limited and the pain and discomfort continued to disrupt her sleep, she said. She was still taking painkillers and she remained “dependent on others because she lives in a remote location”.
Mr Bendall said that the offence was aggravated because Lee had passengers – “let alone the danger to other members of the public”. He had never passed a driving test.
Brian Shaw, defending, said: “He is truly sorry. He’s 28 but rather immature. He is a relatively simple man.
“He put his foot down and tried to get away from the police for no other reason than he wasn’t licensed to drive the vehicle and he had been consuming cannabis.”
Mr Shaw told the court that Lee was Mr Ray’s registered carer and that Mr Ray, now 33, had been in a relationship with Miss Hammond at the time.
He said that, at the scene of the crash, Lee admitted being the driver straight away – something that did not always happen – and had entered an early guilty plea. He had no previous convictions.
He was sorry for the injuries caused to Miss Hammond which he acknowledged were severe and enduring.
Judge Mark Van Der Zwart told Lee: “A police car had cause to start to follow you. You were driving at speeds of up to 100mph on an unlit single carriageway road with a speed limit of 50mph.
“It wasn’t raining but the road was wet. You were ignoring the blue lights behind you and you were ignoring the pleas of Miss Hammond. After a few minutes of this, you lost control on a bend.”
Judge Van Der Zwart said that Miss Hammond had initially been left unable to get out of bed unaided, was scarred and still suffering pain as a result of the crash.
He said: “She felt unable to pick up and play with her children as she used to. Her social life has suffered and so have her finances.”
The judge said accepted that the offence was out of character but added: “This was no momentary loss of focus. It was two to three minutes of dangerously fast driving.
“The ultimate victim was asking you repeatedly from the rear seat to slow down. It’s likely to affect the quality of her life for a very long time.”
On Friday 25 April, he jailed Lee for two years for causing serious injury by dangerous driving and banned him from driving for two years and eight months.
Afterwards, Sergeant Joe McGregor, from the Surrey and Sussex Roads Policing Unit, said: “Lee’s driving was reckless and dangerous.
“We know that one in three collisions in Sussex occur because drivers are going too fast. Speeding is one of the main reasons why people are killed or seriously injured on our roads.
“Lee is incredibly lucky that he did not cause a fatality that night but this collision continues to have a lasting impact on the victim.
“We are pleased that a dangerous driver has been taken off our roads.”
