Wayne Rule (pictured) from Spalding, Lincolnshire, planned to plead not guilty to two charges but changed his mind when his defence lawyer warned him pictures had emerged of him behind the wheel
A driver who was jailed for a hit-and-run on a police officer has been caged again for driving while banned.
Wayne Rule from Spalding, Lincolnshire, was planning to plead not guilty to two charges but changed his mind when his defence lawyer warned him pictures had emerged of him behind the wheel.
It was his fifth driving offence while banned since being out of prison.
The 43-year-old was locked up for nine years after admitting the manslaughter of policeman Jon Odell, 30, who he slammed into when the officer was carrying out a speed check in Margate, Kent, before Christmas in 2000.
He was sentenced at Boston Magistrates’ Court on Friday to six months in prison, three-month consecutive terms for each offence he pleaded guilty to.
In a rare move convicted Rule was allowed outside the Lincolnshire courthouse to smoke a cigarette with officers in tow.
This came due to confusion over who would be taking him to jail. Rule paced up and down the forecourt while chain smoking and sipping an energy drink.
He hugged his girlfriend and joked with an officer but was finally whisked away in a marked police car because there were no security guards available.
He moaned: ‘Why are the police taking me?’
In a rare move convicted Rule was allowed outside the Lincolnshire courthouse to smoke a cigarette with officers in tow. This came due to confusion over who would be taking him to jail. Rule paced up and down the forecourt while chain smoking and sipping an energy drink (left and right)
Prosecutor Neill Fawcett said jobless Rule had found himself in court due to ‘unusual’ circumstances brought on by a newspaper investigation.
It came after the murder of PC Andrew Harper, who had been dragged to his death by a getaway van of burglars in a Berkshire village in August.
The probe caught Rule driving on two occasions on August 30 and 31 despite being on his fourth driving ban.
Rule was sentenced at Boston Magistrates’ Court (pictured) on Friday to six months in prison, three-month consecutive terms for each offence he pleaded guilty to
Mike Alexander, defending, said his client suffered from chronic back pain and had driven on those occasions to collect medication.
He said: ‘The need for Mr Rule to drive was to pick up his medication. He recognises he has committed an offence.’
Asking for a suspended sentence to be considered, he assured the court his client would no longer be getting behind the wheel of a car because he had applied for a mobility scooter which he was likely to soon get.
Rule (pictured) was also given a further 30-month driving disqualification
Rule was given a further 30-month driving disqualification.
He had no car tax and insurance for his silver Audi A3.
Wayne had been photographed driving alone on two separate days and continued to flout the law.
Evidence was made available to police and he was arrested a week later.
When approached at his first floor flat Rule had declined to say why he continued to drive whilst disqualified and said he had ‘no interest in commenting’ about police officers being killed in the line of duty.
A neighbour, who appeared to be unaware of his manslaughter conviction and ban, said: ‘Wayne’s often going here and there in his car. He’s a big fella and it’s a small car so his bulging belly rests on the steering wheel.
‘He keeps himself to himself. We don’t know too much about him but he’s come up here from Kent for a quieter life.’
Officer Odell was thrown against the windscreen and carried 50 yards down the road when Rule hit him at 52mph with his Vauxhall Astra.
The policeman had been wearing a white cap and yellow fluorescent jacket in clear conditions and standing with six other officers when he tried to flag down the vehicle.
Sentencing him at Maidstone Crown Court in 2001, Judge Andrew Patience said: ‘Pc Odell was more than 220 metres away when you saw him. You could have stopped, you should have stopped, but you did not.
Rule, 43, was locked up for nine years after admitting the manslaughter of policeman Jon Odell (pictured), 30, who he slammed into when the officer was carrying out a speed check in Margate, Kent, before Christmas in 2000
‘Knowing you were a disqualified driver, you thought only of yourself, your desire to get away.
‘You had a total disregard for human life or suffering. You collided with the officer, killing him as he was carrying out his duty.’
The court heard he had convictions going back to 1992, including taking a vehicle, drink-driving, driving without licence or insurance, affray, assault, criminal damage, burglary, assault on police and abusive behaviour.
Officer Odell’s girlfriend Cathy Kidd said at the time she struggled to find words to ‘express the emptiness left by his death’.
She said: ‘Jon was a police officer because he believed he was doing something to help others. To have his life taken by someone who had no regard for others is beyond contempt.’
The policeman’s death triggered nationwide fury.
The anger was echoed last summer when newlywed Lissie Harper was widowed after her PC hubby Andy, 28, was mowed down and killed while responding to a reported burglary in Berkshire.
Rule’s smashed Vauxhall Astra is pictured after the crash. He hit the policeman at 52mph in 2000