A MAN with two previous drink driving offences narrowly escaped being sent to prison after refusing to take a breath test when the police stopped him.

Jordan Robert Maggs was subject to a suspended prison sentence when he was pulled over driving in Crewkerne and “deliberately refused” to cooperate because he claimed he had done nothing wrong.

However when he appeared before District Judge Angela Brereton at Yeovil he was told that if he had just cooperated with the police at the side of the road then he may not even have been in court.

Maggs, 39, of St Michael’s Avenue, Yeovil, pleaded guilty to failing to provide a specimen of breath for analysis and failing to cooperate with a preliminary roadside breath test on August 24 when he appeared at Yeovil Magistrates Court.

Prosecutor Ben Winzer said: “This was a deliberate refusal and there had been evidence of impairment due to the manner of his driving.

“The case is also aggravated by previous convictions for similar offences in 2009 and 2011.”

The court heard that Maggs was also on a suspended prison sentence order imposed by magistrates in Dorset in December last year for an offence of assault causing actual bodily harm and was now in breach of that order.

Louise Eaves, defending, said Maggs accepted this “looked like a wilful refusal” but said he had “not appreciated the seriousness of refusing.”

“His refusal to cooperate was based on him being disgruntled that he was stopped because he did not feel he had done anything wrong,” she explained.

“This was coupled with the stress of being involved with the police again.”

She added that Maggs had some mental health issues, and it had been an incredibly stressful situation for him to be in and he just didn’t think it through as much as he should have done.

“He is in breach of his suspended sentence order, but it was not related to driving, and he is getting an awful lot from the order so it would be a shame to interfere with the progress he is making,” she said.

District Judge Brereton told Maggs his “one saving grace” was the progress he was making on his community order and said that she would not activate the suspended sentence.

She sentenced him to a new 12-month community order with a 120-day Alcohol Abstinence programme and banned him from driving for 18 months.

She also fined him £200 for breach of the suspended sentence along with a £114 victim surcharge and £85 costs.