A cocaine-fuelled driver who ended a 45-minute police chase by careering his truck into a Fife garden has been jailed.
Stuart Nowrie was chased in a flatbed truck by police from Blairhall to Cardenden.
The 37-year-old took police on a 35-mile pursuit through three separate council areas.
After being chased at high speeds through residential zones and country roads, Nowrie eventually turned on to a grassy field at a playpark in Cardenden.
Attempting to squeeze down a footpath between two houses, he misjudged the turn and wiped out roofer Colin Paterson’s garden.
Mr Paterson had asked for Nowrie to be given a supportive community disposal but after sentencing, said imprisonment was as much as he could expect.
‘Horrendous episode of driving’
On Wednesday, Nowrie was locked up for 18 months – the maximum sentence available to Sheriff Derek Hamilton after a six-month discount because of his early plea.
Nowrie was also banned from driving for 32 months and told he must resit the extended test.
For driving with a cocaine derivative in his blood, he was also handed a concurrent four-month prison sentence and 16-month ban.
The sheriff said: “This offence happened about 18 months ago and it seems to me that you have taken no real efforts to deal with any health issues or addiction issues.
“Notwithstanding the plea that was made on your behalf that you could do with assistance, it seems to me you haven’t actually helped yourself.
“I would remind you that this is a particularly horrendous episode of driving.”
Cocaine habit
Defending, solicitor Charlotte Watt told the court Nowrie had not been thinking rationally as he had a relative critically ill in hospital.
She explained although her client’s blood produced a high cocaine derivative reading, he had not taken the drug for three days and would not have known he was over the limit.
Sheriff Hamilton pointed out Nowrie told social workers he took cocaine “almost every weekend” and sometimes during the week.
Ms Watt said: “Mr Nowrie fully accepts the seriousness of the offence.
“He was aware of the police being present but he was struggling with a severe dip in his mental health.”
At this stage, Nowrie said from the dock he was on his way to hospital to visit a relative.
Embarrassment
Ms Watt said: “He’s mortified.
“He’s simply at a loss for words that this has happened.
“He’s recognised the consequences this could have had.
“He understands he needs help and he seeks the help now.
“He’s not tried to hide from the court that (cocaine’s) something he was taking. ”
Ms Watt said Nowrie had a “fairly limited record of previous convictions, all of which are somewhat dated and extremely minor in comparison.”
She added family illness and childhood trauma had caused Nowrie’s poor mental health, for which he is medicated, to worsen.
He also struggles with bladder and kidney issues, significant anxiety and dyslexia.
Pursuit
Previously at Stirling Sheriff Court, Nowrie admitted driving dangerously and while under the influence of cocaine.
The court heard Nowrie, of Leighton Street in High Valleyfield, was spotted on May 5 2021, driving a flatbed Ford truck at a junction on the A907 near Blairhall.
Officers switched on their sirens but he drove around their vehicle and overtook a HGV before speeding off.
Nowrie sped through Kennet and Clackmannan, on to the A977, through Saline and Cleish, reaching speeds of 75mph.
Taking more country roads, he eventually arrived in Cardenden.
At speed, he mounted the grassy field beside the children’s playpark on Craigside Road and sped downhill in the direction of a footpath between Mr Paterson’s home and a neighbouring property.
He lost control and crashed.
He was taken to Dunfermline police station where a drug test showed his blood contained, per litre, 247 microgrammes of cocaine derivative benzoylecgonine.
Plea for help
Sole trader Mr Paterson, 50, had been working in Kirkcaldy when Nowrie ploughed through his fence but landscapers were working in the garden next door.
Speaking to The Courier last month, he said: “If you’d been in the back garden, you would have been dead.
“It was a blow to come home to. He totalled my garden.
“The garden’s never been the same since, the remains are still lying there.”
Mr Paterson had to pay £400 to fit a new fence and spend more money on locks to secure the ladders his firm, CAP Roofing, depends on.
There are still traces of oil from the crash in his garden and shards of shattered brake-light surround the path.
