A Jersey lawyer has been sentenced to seven months in prison for drunkenly crashing his Jaguar into another car and driving off – just 10 days after finishing community service for attacking a taxi driver.
David Steenson (57) – a former Crown Advocate who was described as a “gifted” advocate by his own legal representative in the Magistrate’s Court today – admitted failing to stop after an accident, drink-driving, and two counts of dangerous driving.
Advocate Debbie Corbel, defending, said Steenson had stopped at a friend’s house on his way home from work on 16 May. The friend had already poured him a glass of wine in the garden.
Having been sober for months since he was convicted for an assault in which alcohol was involved, Steenson accepted the drink.
He got into his “saloon-style” Jaguar, and was that evening was seen driving over the white line in the middle of the road.
He hit another car – with a mother and daughter inside – and claimed that he hadn’t realised that he had hit them, thinking instead he had hit a curb or a wall.
He continued driving for just over a mile with his tyre coming off and his wheel at an angle – leaving traces that the police followed to eventually find him.
The other driver suffered whiplash and the court heard that Steenson had passed on his apology to the victims.
After Relief Magistrate Tan Ikram had retired to make a decision on Steenson’s fate, he was called back so that Steenson could address him directly – an unusual measure.
Steenson complained about the way his pre-sentence report had been compiled, until the Relief Magistrate warned him: “I don’t even think this [pre-sentence report] was particularly adverse to your position. It was actually rather supportive… arguing your point doesn’t necessarily help you.”
His advocate added that she hadn’t tried to paint an unflattering picture of him, and Steenson replied that he was not trying to undermine his lawyer.
Relief Magistrate Ikram said that Steenson “should have been acutely aware, because he is a lawyer, of the risks of reoffending.
He added that while Steenson said he “does not seek to minimise his responsibility for his offending”, the pre-sentence report “suggests to me otherwise”.
Delivering the sentence, Relief Magistrate Ikram said that Advocate Corbel had been “eloquent” in representing Steenson.
But the offending was serious, he said – pointing to the mile Steenson had driven with his steering impacted and scoring the road as he went.
“It would be impossible not to know” that he had had an accident, the Magistrate said.
Steenson has been disqualified for 30 months and will need to sit an extended test before he can drive again.