Yorkshire Dales: Champagne-swigging drink-driver jailed

A man who drove his work van through the Yorkshire Dales while swigging champagne, calling friends and rolling cigarettes has been jailed.

Mason James Cowgill, 27, drove along the A65 near Ingleton last June while drinking from a bottle of Bollinger.

He eventually drove into the back of a car, which he reported to his boss who then checked the van's in-cab footage.

At York Crown Court on 2 February Cowgill admitted dangerous driving and was jailed for eight months.

Cowgill, of Gargrave, North Yorkshire, was also disqualified from driving for 32 months, after which he will have to sit an extended driving test.

He was seen in the video footage drinking and driving as well as rolling a cigarette, often without his hands on the steering wheel.

At one point, the van was driven into the back of a car in stationary traffic close to the junction of the A65 and the B6255 Tatterhorn Lane.

The car was damaged but no-one was injured and Cowgill and the car driver exchanged details.

However, Cowgill left before police arrived, continuing to drive and call more friends on his mobile phone while at the wheel and almost causing another collision.

PC Babs Parsons, of North Yorkshire Police, said: "Cowgill is lucky he did not kill or seriously injure someone that day.

"The manner in which he drove demonstrated a clear danger to other road users and I'm amazed he did not cause any more collisions.

"This was not a momentary lapse in concentration, this is a sustained period in which Cowgill paid very little or no attention at all to the road and was clearly not in control of the van he was driving," she said.

PC Parsons added that she wanted to thank the owner of the van for bringing the footage to the police's attention: "It has enabled us to take a very dangerous driver off the road."

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