'I've got Covid': Drink driver who deliberately coughed on police officer on petrol station forecourt is sent to prison

Dean Fulthorpe carried out the assault as he was being arrested on suspicion of drink driving when he was stopped by police on a petrol station forecourt in Wakefield.

Leeds Crown Court heard the 28-year-old was due to appear before a judge but refused to leave his cell at HMP Leeds where he was being held on remand.

The sentencing continued in his absence, and prosecutor Timothy Jacobs said Fulthorpe admitted a raft of charges dated between October 2018 and November 2020.

He was spotted by police driving at speed along Wagon Lane in Upton at 2.30am on the morning of October 24, 2018.

The officers followed him for around 20 minutes as he drove through red lights at more than 95mph on a dual carriageway.

He also drove on the wrong side of the road with no headlights.

He had already been banned from driving in 2016 and had not passed an extended test to get his licence back.

The defendant was also caught driving without a licence on August 4 in Upton, and on November 8, last year, along with no insurance, when he was behind the wheel of a Ford Ka on the A650 heading out of Wakefield.

Fulthorpe was also caught driving while banned on May 28 last year when officers stopped him at the BP garage on Doncaster Road in Wakefield.

The officers spoke to him as they noticed his speech was slurred.

Mr Jacobs told the court: "He told the officer he had had a few beers.

"They searched him before putting him in the van, but he told them he had Covid and then coughed three times in the officer's face.

"It is not known if he had Covid."

It was later found that he was over the drink drive limit.

Little mitigation was given by Fulthorpe's barrister, Stephen Welford, who said his client had suffered a "traumatic injury" in 2019, but no other details were given out in court.

He said his client had been on remand since December 1.

The court was told that Fulthorpe, of Wakefield Road, Ackworth, had refused psychiatric help while in prison.

Judge Christopher Batty gave Fulthorpe a 20-month jail term, and banned him from driving for three years and 10 months.