A man who lied to police about driving the car his girlfriend crashed has been jailed – after breaching his suspended sentence for a second time.

Brandon Gorgen, 39, had managed to complete just an hour and a half of his 90 hours of unpaid work by the time the probation service summonsed him to court this week for breaching his order.

Sending him inside for seven months, Judge Nigel Daly accused Gorgen of having no respect for orders of the court or the laws of the land.

In March, he had avoided an immediate prison sentence for perverting the course of justice. He claimed to have been the one driving when his partner Lucy Mellis, who did not have a licence to drive the car, crashed a VW Golf into a trolley bay at Banbury’s Gateway shopping centre in September 2020.

Gorgen, who was in the car at the time, was breathalysed at the scene but tested negative for alcohol. He kept up the lie about being the driver for 11 days before coming clean to the police.

At that hearing, the judge told co-defendant Mellis: "Whilst I accept it was a quiet car park you could have easily killed not only one of the occupants of your car but anybody else who happened to be there.”

On Monday, Gorgen, of Harrier Way, Bicester, returned to court and admitted breaching his suspended sentence order by missing a home visit with probation on August 4, skipping an office appointment on August 18 and missing unpaid work sessions on August 10 and 17.

Oxford Crown Court heard that Gorgen had already breached his order once and, in July, was ordered to do an extra 10 hours of community service.

But so far he had only completed 90 minutes out of the 90 hours of unpaid work required of him. He had 55 rehabilitation activity requirement sessions left to do, having completed four.

Dana Bilan, mitigating, said her client accepted burying his head in the sand. Since the crash, he had suffered from ‘severe headaches’.

He had lost his job as a result of the court proceedings and had been unable to get new employment. From his benefits, he paid £660 a month in rent and used the rest ‘simply to survive’.

Gorgen was said to be ‘more than willing’ to do the unpaid work. He was remorseful for missing the appointments.

Ms Bilan said her client lived in a flat and had not been receiving the letters letting him know about his probation sessions, as they were habitually delivered to the wrong letter box. It was only through bumping into his neighbour that he learnt he was due in court for the breach, the court heard.

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This story was written by Tom Seaward. He joined the team in 2021 as Oxfordshire's court and crime reporter.  

To get in touch with him email: Tom.Seaward@newsquest.co.uk

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