A DRIVER who ‘took the mickey out of the police’ by diluting his urine sample has been banned and given a suspended sentence.

Driss Siyalha was found with an empty beer car in the passenger footwell when he crashed his Mercedes-Benz into a field off the A30 in East Devon and police suspected he had been drinking and driving.

He was taken to hospital in Exeter with minor injuries after being rescued by paramedics and was then asked to give a blood or urine test.

An attempt to take a blood test failed when he pulled his arm away and he then told police he suffered from anxiety and was unable to provide a urine sample if anyone was watching.

A police officer waiting outside a locked toilet cubicle heard the wash basin tap running and when Siyalha came out, the sample was almost completely cold.

The sample bottle was fitted with a temperature gauge and exactly the same thing happened when he was asked to give a second sample. A scientist later concluded it had been diluted with cold water.

Siyalha would have faced a mandatory three year driving ban if he had provided a positive sample because he had four previous drink-driving convictions.

He denied that he was drunk at the time of the crash and blamed his apparent state of intoxication on mixing beer with medicines prescribed for his morbid obesity, diabetes, anxiety and depression.

Siyalha, aged 44, formerly of Cheriton Bishop, but now living in Sandhurst, Berkshire, admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice when he appeared at Exeter Crown Court.

He was jailed for eight months, suspended for 18 months, ordered to do 24 days of rehabilitation activities and banned from driving for 18 months by Judge Timothy Rose.

He told him the only reason he was not going straight to jail was because a doctor’s letter warned of a serious risk of death if exposed to coronavirus.

The judge told him: ‘It was overwhelmingly obvious this was another incident of drink driving and you kicked up a right old fuss. You were obstructive to police and health professionals.

‘This ended with you tampering with a urine sample and perverting the course of justice. If it were not for your state of health, I am quite sure this would be an immediate prison sentence.

‘That is what people get in 99 per cent of these cases but I have read the medical report and your doctor’s letter and you have multiple health problems which are quite dangerous for you.

‘I view of the present pandemic and the significant risk of contracting Covid in custody, I am satisfied it would be genuinely and potentially immediately dangerous to your health if you were locked up.

‘It would be much more dangerous than being in the community at this time and I cannot in all conscience, no matter how much you deserve it, send you to that environment at this time.’

Miss Bathsheba Cassel, prosecuting, said Siyalha’s Mercedes was involved in a one vehicle accident at 6.55pm on December 12 last year on the A30 at Monkton, near Honiton in which he crashed off the road.

He was found in the car and had to be freed by paramedics because he was too obese to get free of the wreckage on his own. Police smelled drink on his breath and spotted an empty beer can in the car.

He was aggressive and uncooperative when taken to the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, where he agreed to a blood test but then pulled his arm away before a sample could be taken.

Miss Cassel said: ‘He agreed to a urine sample. However, he cited mental health issues, stress and anxiety, and said he was unable to provide a sample with the officer watching.

‘He was allowed to provide the sample from within a toilet cubicle with door closed and the officer standing outside.

‘The officer heard the basin tap running and when he handed over the sample the officer noticed it was a pale yellow colour and the temperature gauge showed it was cold.

‘Siyalha claimed he had drunk a lot of cold water. He produced a second sample and again the officer heard the tap running and again the sample was pale yellow and cold.’

Mr Adrian Chaplin, defending, said Siyalha was not drunk but may have been unfit to drive because of the combination of a small amount of beer and his normal medication.

He said Siyalha suffers from a complex set of medical conditions including morbid obesity and diabetes and has been assessed as being at immediate risk of death if he catches Covid.

He said: ‘He says he wants to apologise to the public prosecutor and has expressed genuine remorse and shame.