AN EDEN Valley farmer who repeatedly failed to abide by the terms of a suspended sentence imposed for dangerous driving has been jailed.

In the ten months since 25-year-old Christopher Stainton was given a suspended ten month jail term for his offending, he has completed virtually none of the 240 hours of unpaid work he was given - apart from a one-hour induction.

He also had a history of failing to attend court hearings and Probation Service appointments, Carlisle Crown Court heard. Stainton had also complied with parts of the court order - a curfew and alcohol abstincence.

But prosecutor Tim Evans told a judge that the defendant should not be allowed to treat his suspended sentence as a Woolworths style 'pick-n-mix' exercise, in which he accepted the parts he liked and ignored the rest.

The court heard that the original sentence was imposed in June last year after Stainton, from Renwick, near Penrith, admitted a spate of offending.

This included a dangerous driving offence, which happened during a high-speed police pursuit when Stainton used his vehicle to ram an armed response vehicle before driving away over fields, smashing through a gate and fences.

He eventually abandoned his car after blundering into a river. The sentencing judge told Stainton that, had he committed such offences in the USA where officers are routinely armed, he would probably have been killed.

Addressing Judge Ian Unsworth KC, Mr Evans said Stainton’s history was a unhappy one, littered with non-attendances at court and failures to keep Probation Service appointments.

He missed two consecutive appointments on Sundays in February; for neither failure had he he provided a reasonable excuse.

“Mr Stainton requested to be part of a Sunday [unpaid work] group due to him being employed on his parents’ farm; and that was accommodated by the unpaid work team. The Probation Service tried to help Mr Stainton to help himself...

“He has failed to attend for his rehabilitation activity days, and of the 240 hours [unpaid work], he has not done a single hour... save for the notional one-hour induction appointment.”

Brendan Burke, for Stainton, said that since being arrested and taken to prison for breaching his suspended sentence order, the defendant had shown himself to be 'extremely motivated' to comply with his sentence.

“He no longer lives with his parents,” said Mr Burke “He lives in a central location in Penrith and so one problem which has complicated the order, rural isolation, no longer applies.”

But Judge Ian Unsworth KC said the “hard-working and extremely dedicated Probation Service” staff working with Stainton had done everything they could to support him in his rehabilitation.

While there were positive features in the defendant’s life, the grim reality was that on too many occasions he had failed to comply with his suspended sentence order.

The judge said: “It seems to me that in this case the time has come when the court must consider whether it is appropriate for the order to continue.” It was not unjust to activate part of the suspended sentence imposed in June, said the judge.

Judge Unsworth imposed seven of the 10 months of the original jail sentence, noting that Stainton had complied with some aspects of his sentence.

When he is released, Stainton will continue to be at risk of a second eight month suspended jail sentence which was imposed for separate offending in October last year.

Last June, Stainton admitted dangerous driving, failing to cooperate with an initial breath test and three counts of causing criminal damage – to field gates and turf, three fences and a police car.

On three occasions, as police tried to stop Stainton, he stopped, yelled abuse at the police officers and then sped away. The pursuit saw him driving through Bolton village – an area with a 30mph speed limit – at 68mph.

When he stopped the third time, the defendant used his pick-up to reverse ram the armed police response vehicle three times.

After this, as the pursuit began yet again, police used a tactical manoeuvre to force the Ford Ranger off the road.

Yet even after this, Stainton simply drove away across fields. The officers lost sight of him but spotted him again on the A66 at Long Marton - but again he drove away over fields, smashing through gates and fences.

Livestock had to flee in panic as he drove through them.

“His car was eventually found in a river,” said the prosecutor. The defendant was found hiding on the riverbank, but he refused a breath test for alcohol and a saliva test for drugs.

Stainton’s defence lawyer described his behaviour as “utter stupidity.”