A MAN who was left in a ‘suicidal state’ after discovering that his girlfriend was pregnant – but not by him – was jailed yesterday for driving while disqualified.

Gordon Richardson, 29, of Titherfields, Fenay Bridge, pleaded guilty at Kirklees Magistrates Court in Huddersfield.

Prosecutor Vanessa Schofield said the defendant was stopped by police officers while driving his mother’s black Vauxhall Corsa at Highgate Road, Dewsbury, on October 30, last year.

She said: “They smelled alcohol on his breath and then found the Class C drug Ketamine in a jacket pocket. It was also revealed that he had been disqualified from driving.

“He was taken to the police station and asked to co-operate with the intoxicant procedure and was therefore charged with failing to provide a sample. He said the Ketamine was for his own use.”

In mitigation, Bob Carr, said: “He had been in a fairly volatile relationship with the mother of his two-year-old child.

“On the night of the offence he found that his girlfriend was pregnant but not to him. That threw his mind into turmoil. He couldn’t see any way of solving the situation and was depressed.

“He took his mother’s keys and started to drive to Scotland. He was suicidal at that stage. He made full and frank confessions to the police. He is no stranger to the courts.

“I do not seek to minimise the offences. He is the carer of his mother who is in a wheelchair. He does most of the running around for her. It’s her disabled car that he took.

“She has now got rid of the car to remove temptation.

“Prison is regrettable, but inevitable. He has known since October that this day was likely. I don’t suppose he will have slept well last night knowing that this was a likely outcome.

“The circumstances are not made up and his explanation was put forward at the first opportunity that he had. I would like his custody to be measured in weeks rather than months.”

Richardson pleaded guilty to failing to provide a specimen for analysis; taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent; using a motor vehicle without insurance; driving while disqualified and possession of a Class C drug.

Chairman of the Bench Keith Wilson jailed him for eight weeks for driving while disqualified. He said the other offences aggravated what he had done.

He said: “We have reduced your sentence for your early guilty pleas otherwise it would have been 12 weeks. You will be disqualified from driving for three years and for all other offences there will be no separate penalty and the Ketamine will be forfeited and destroyed.”