Benevolent Magistrates have thrown a lifeline to an Isle of Wight drug driver in breach of his community order.
George Pipes, 33, of Quay Lane, Brading, admitted being in breach of the order when he appeared at Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court on Friday, 8th August 2025.
The order, which includes 120 hours' unpaid work and 30 days' rehabilitation activity requirement, was originally made on 6th October 2023, as a result of Pipes' conviction for driving whilst over the specified limit for BZE. It had already been extended from 12 months' to 24 months' to afford Pipes the opportunity of compliance.
Pipes crashed his tipper van whilst more than eleven-times the specified limit of the cocaine metabolite, yet told the court he had no idea at all how the drug had entered his body.
Addressing the court at the breach hearing, a representative of the National Probation Service said that the 33-year-old had demonstrated "wilful non-compliance" with the order. He had completed only four hours of unpaid work and attended only seven days' rehabilitation activity requirement.
Despite Pipes' abysmal level of compliance, probation asked the court to give him one more chance to complete his sentence.
Appearing unrepresented, Pipes told the court that he was a father of six and had "lots of debt", but acknowledged that was no excuse for his poor level of compliance.
Magistrates agreed to extend the order by a further 12 months.
The Presiding Justice said: "This is two years now. If there's another breach, you're looking at custody and that'll really mess up your life."
In cases where there is wilful and persistent non-compliance with a community order, the court's usual step is to revoke the order and replace it with a custodial sentence - irrespective of whether the original offence crossed the custody threshold or not.
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