A police officer crashed into a wall as he answered an emergency call.

PC Ben Coone, who was yesterday found guilty of driving without due care and attention, drove towards a junction too quickly and lost control of his patrol car.

Coone, from Crawley Down, and his passenger PC Andy Blackstock were on their way to Gossops Green, Crawley, in a marked police car with its siren and lights flashing just after 8pm on September 25 last year.

Coone, 34, began to slow the car when he came round a bend in the A23 Crawley Avenue and saw vehicles waiting in both lanes of the dual carriageway and in a slip road turning left to Gossops Drive.

He was unable to stop in time and ended up swerving left into the grass verge.

Coone, who knew the road well, told Brighton Magistrates Court he had been responding to a call from a colleague at a domestic incident.

He said: "My colleague was listening to the radio. My attention was focused on the road.

"I checked all the lanes and there were cars in all the lanes. I was travelling at a safe speed. My intention was to stop and wait at the lights. I was driving the vehicle at 80mph.

"I reduced the speed down to 60mph. I could see the red lights. I put the brakes on. I had a split second to see whether the brakes would work or take an avoiding decision."

Alan Robertshaw, defending, said: "We do expect the police to get there quickly. Sometimes the pressures are on. It is rather a Catch 22. We say, we expect you to be able to use speed but if it goes wrong it is your fault. This is not somebody who let his mind wander. He made a bad judgement call."

Alan Gardner, prosecuting, said: "You weren't paying proper attention to the road ahead because had you been paying proper attention you would have been able to slow down in time quite safely on the road rather than having to steer off."

District Judge John Woollard said: "Even if you are a trained police officer responding to an emergency situation, does that change your duty of care towards other road users? For his own sake and the sake of his passenger, the answer to that must be no."

Coone, who has no previous endorsements, was given three penalty points and fined £100 with £175 costs.