A MAN has been sentenced to over a year in prison for dangerous driving in the early morning – when many children were walking to school.

Ashley Canavan, 27, of no fixed abode, was arrested on Friday, August 25. Police were called out at 9am to reports of an inebriated man who had crashed his vehicle into three parked cars in Villiers Road, Slough.

A police report stated that: "further investigation revealed that he had driven in a dangerous manner, mounting the pavement, crashing in to street signs and also attempting to ram vehicles."

Mr Canavan had left the scene when the officers arrived at, but was located in the nearby Staunton Road. During the arrest, he spat blood into the face of one of the arresting officers.

Mr Canavan pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, failing to provide a specimen for analysis, and for assaulting a constable at Reading Crown Court on Wednesday, August 30.

He was sentenced at the same hearing to 16 months imprisonment for dangerous driving, in addition to 14 days consecutive for assaulting a constable, for a combined total of one year and four-and-a-half months' imprisonment.

He was also disqualified from driving for three years and eight months, and will need to re-take his driving test before he can operate a vehicle again.

Investigating officer Mark Zilles, of Slough police station: "The area where this occurred was busy and, at the time, it was rush hour with children on their way to school.

"It was only by good fortune that Canavan did not cause any serious injuries to members of the public."