An oil rig worker has escaped with a fine after he blamed crashing his flash £155,000 on Storm Dennnis.
Nicholas Hird, 31, had been out drinking and eating at an Italian restaurant in Alderley Edge, Cheshire, when he offered to give two friends a lift home in his Porsche 911 Turbo.
During the journey Hird ploughed into a street sign, police then spotted Hird walk away from the scene with a personalised number plate which had fallen off the luxury vehicle.
Oil rig worker Nicholas Hird pictured at Stockport Magistrates Court, where he received a £1,066 fine for driving over the legal alcohol limit and obstructing police. Hird, 31, was on shore leave when he crashed his Porsche 911 into a road sign in Cheshire
Hird, 31, had been drinking and eating at an Italian restaurant when he offered two friends a lift home. He then claims the force of Storm Dennis’ winds blew his car off the road and into a road sign. Police saw the oil rig worker trying to leave the scene with his personalised number plate
Officers gave chase and Hird is then understood to have thrown the plate away.
During his attempted escape escape Hird bundled over an officer who was trying to catch him.
A roadside breath test revealed Hird, who lives with his mother in the hamlet of Somerford Booths, near Congleton, had 63 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
Appearing at Stockport Magistrates Court, Hird admitting to driving with excess alcohol and obstructing police, but told the court the only reason he crashed the luxury motor was due to it being blown off the road by Storm Dennis.
He was handed a £1,066 fine and banned from driving for 18 months.
The incident occurred on February 21 after Hird was celebrating being on shore leave from working two weeks on and two weeks off on a rig in the Irish Sea.
He had spent the night eating and drinking at Italian restaurant Piccolino in Alderley Edge and believed he was safe to drive when he switched to fizzy drinks during the evening.
But police were alerted after Hird was seen crashing into a street sign at 9.20pm, having lost control of his sports car with two other friends inside with him.
Prosecuting Lucy Garside said: ‘A call was received in relation to a vehicle involving a road traffic collision and officers attended the scene of a black Porsche. The Porsche had crashed into a street sign and the vehicle was missing the registration plate.
‘Three males were nearby to the incident and the police noticed one of these males was carrying a registration plate and that was the defendant. Officers asked them to stop and they denied being involved.
‘The defendant than discarded the registration plates and turned to back away from the officers as they were speaking to him – he then started to run away.
‘A second police officer in a vehicle started to drive after the defendant who was running away. When the defendant saw them he then ran in the opposite direction towards the officer on foot.
Nicholas Hird was close to double the legal alcohol limit when he crashed his Porsche 911 (above) into a road sign in February. The oil rig worker, who lives with his mother, was on shore leave and out celebrating with friends when he offered them both a lift home
‘The officer on foot tried to detain the defendant and struggled to do so because as he ran towards the officer he knocked him to the ground whilst trying to detain him.
‘Because of the collision, the nature and behaviour of the defendant the officer asked him to take part in a roadside breath test which he failed.”
Magistrates were told Hird, who is of previous good character, is expected to keep his lucratively paid job but explained he will now have to independently fund his own transport in order to travel to Blackpool to catch a helicopter ride to the rig 20 miles off the coast.
Mitigating Damian Mullarkey, said: ‘Mr Hird appears before the court having never before been in trouble.
‘Impaired or not, the weather did make driving conditions very difficult that night.
‘Mr Hird had been out at Piccolino and has been drinking and then stopped drinking.
‘He had a meal and had gone onto soft drinks and he presumed wrongly that at that stage because he had eaten and consumed soft drinks he would now be below the legal limit and safe to drive.
‘He was asked to drive two of his friends and he did so because of the bad weather. But that weather caused him to swerve and he lost the back end. He lost control and clipped the kerb crashed into the post in question.
‘He picked up the number plate having moved his car from being an obstruction and then turned around to walk back to Piccolino as it was not a considerable distance in order to get some assistance.
‘The police became aware and panic set in and the next part of this incident is pure panic. They asked him to stop and he has stopped. But he’s then backed away and tried to run – it’s a bit ridiculous as he’s got the number plate under his arm at the time.
‘He then ran back towards the police officer who by the defendants own admissions had been like a goalkeeper on a goalkeepers line moving back and forth and left to right. They then bumped into each other and both have fallen to the ground.”
‘The fact is my client momentarily panicked but then complied fully with the police thereafter. The aggravating features are the amount of alcohol consumed but there is an argument that had it not been for the weather would the accident have happened?
‘We just don’t know, but that’s where we are. Mr Hird up until this point is a man of good character and 31-years of age and is living at home with his mother in quite a rural setting. For someone of his age, he’s of quite a considerable income.
‘It’s worth setting out he works on the oil rigs and we all know what sort of capacity that can garner and he benefits from that. In order to get from his address to the oil rigs, he has to transport himself from Congleton to Blackpool.
“He will, therefore, have to self-finance his travel arrangements. His job is not at risk but he will have to finance independently his travel arrangements. It’s about 150 miles and we are talking a considerable sum he will have to pay on top of whatever penalty he may get for these offences.
“He works two weeks on and two weeks off and works hard when he’s working and tries to enjoy himself and relax because of the intensity of his employment when he is off.
‘He has lost his £800 excess as a result of this collision with the post. The night in question – his trip to Piccolino on February 21 – has become a very expensive outing for him.
‘I would hope you would try and consider keeping the disqualification to the lower end. I ask simply because of the personal circumstances as he does live in a rural location rather than urbanisation. There is nothing to suggest his manner of driving is anything bad what has been outlined and what was admitted in the interview.’
Hird was also ordered to pay £165 in court costs.