‘Menace’ driver jailed again - just after A47 horror crash prison release

Carlos Lester, 27, led police on a high speed pursuit through Wisbech on March 20 this year as they attempted to stop a stolen Vauxhall Corsa using false number plates.

At one point he mounted a public footpath along Sandy Lane, which forced officers to abort the pursuit due to the risks to pedestrians.

The car was later found burnt out in Emneth but following further enquiries police identified Lester as the driver.

Carlos Lester had been jailed for four years after injuring a five-year-old girl in an A47 crash in 2019 (Image: Submitted)

It occurred just seven months after Lester had been released from prison after being found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving for a head-on collision that left three victims with injuries, including serious facial injuries to a five-year-old girl.

Appearing before Norwich Crown Court via video link from prison on Tuesday (August 23), he was sentenced to two years and two months for the latest offences including dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified and failing to stop for police.

He was also banned from driving for 10 years.

Recorder John Hardy said only sentencing guidelines prevented him from imposing a far more severe sentence.

“For years it has been apparent to judges that the penalty for dangerous driving is wholly inadequate,” he said.

“This defendant is a menace but the maximum two year sentence I can pass does not reflect the danger he caused to the public.”

Telling Lester he had “an appalling record”, he added: “The manner of your driving on this occasion was extremely dangerous, posing a very high level of risk to innocent road users, cyclists, pedestrians and others.

“If you had a shred of a conscience you would have learnt from the dreadful injuries that befell the people you injured on the previous offence.”

The 2019 A47 crash caused by Carlos Lester (Image: Submitted)

In 2019 Lester was jailed for four years and disqualified from driving for seven years after he smashed into a family returning home from a seaside holiday on the A47 near Wisbech.

He had crossed into the wrong side of the road and fled the scene after his car spun into a ditch, leaving the young girl requiring surgery to as deep laceration across her forehead and another with a broken sternum.

Prosecutor Ian James told the court Lester, of Rose Fair Close in Wisbech, has 27 previous convictions for 47 offences, including numerous motoring offences, but that he had been released from prison on August 20 last year.

“A significant part of this pursuit was when the defendant turned onto a public footpath off Sandy Lane in order to try to get away,” he said.

“It is the view of the police that a serious or fatal collision could have ensued if someone had happened to be walking down the path.”

Stephen Mather, mitigating, said Lester, who had pleaded guilty to the offences, was due to become a father in December.

“He accepts his appalling record. His father is also serving a very long sentence and he has given him some fatherly advice whilst in prison this time to not to muck up his life and to buck his ideas up,” he said.

“He tells me he wants to become more mature and responsible. He has no intention of driving when he comes out of prison.”

Speaking after the sentencing, investigating officer, Sergeant Ben Hawkins said: “Lester has shown that he is a dangerous individual when behind the wheel of a vehicle, proven previously by his actions that led to his original imprisonment.

“Whilst on licence he has continued to drive whilst under a period of disqualification and again engaged in such a dangerous manner of driving to try and avoid police.

“These actions show a lack of remorse and the danger he continues to present to other motorists.”