AN “ARROGANT” driver smashed into a tree leaving his passenger with “life-changing” injuries.
Martin Skinner was speeding along a country road when he lost control of his red Porsche and crashed.
The impact was so forceful it sent the car’s engine flying out of the vehicle and the passenger, a 30-year-old woman, was left with serious brain injuries.
She was flown to King’s College Hospital in London where she remained in an induced coma for more than a week.
Police investigating the incident found that Skinner, 40, had tried to organise a “supercar road trip” to France with friends on the morning of the crash.
But, when his friends turned the idea down, he instead decided to “go rallying” to the house of a business acquaintance in Rudgwick, near Horsham.
Later that evening Skinner persuaded his passenger to come with him in his Porsche so she could give him directions to a nearby shop.
But it was during this journey that the collision took place.
After the horror smash, Skinner failed a roadside ‘DrugWipe’ test. He tested positive for cocaine before being taken to Guildford Hospital with serious injuries.
While there he refused to provide a further sample for evidential purposes.
Skinner, of Kinnerton Street, London, was subsequently charged with careless driving and failing to provide a specimen for analysis.
The crash happened on August 24, 2018.
He appeared at Worthing Magistrates’ Court and entered a plea of not guilty to both offences, claiming that the crash was caused by a defective road surface - though there had only been two crashes on the road in 10 years. He said he failed to provide a specimen because he was not fit enough to give his consent at that time.
The case was adjourned for a trial at the same court on August 21.
On the day of the trial Skinner initially failed to appear and the case commenced in his absence. His passenger, still recovering from her life-changing injuries, gave evidence that Skinner had been driving so fast that everything had been a blur.
She asked him to slow down but said he ignored her pleas and tried to take a bend so fast that he lost control and crashed.
Skinner then turned up to the court some two hours late in his McLaren sports car and claimed his alarm clock had not woken him up in time.
He was charged at court with a separate offence of failing to surrender to bail. Following legal advice, Skinner changed his plea to guilty in relation to all charges.
The judge described Skinner as “arrogant” and declined to give him any credit for his guilty plea.
She sentenced him to 22 months’ imprisonment and he was also disqualified from driving until May 2022, and ordered to pay fines and costs amounting to £1,815.
Investigating officer Tony Crisp, of the Sussex Police Serious Collision Investigation Unit, said: “He had clearly set out to drive around the countryside in a high powered car, at high speed, and under the influence of cocaine, resulting in a crash that caused the victim in this case to sustain a life-changing injury.
“He sought to prevent the police from taking a blood sample to establish how much cocaine he had in his system and until the very last moment refused to accept responsibility for his actions.
“Cocaine is a Class A drug, and can have the effect of impairing a person’s ability to drive safely. Surrey Police and Sussex Police are committed to both educating drivers not to drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and to catching and convicting those who intentionally put other road users’ lives at risk by doing so.”
DrugWipe testes cannot be used in court.
