Police officer caused car crash while off duty and told other driver not to call 999

An off-duty police officer caused a car crash and left the scene after telling the other driver there was no need to call 999, a court has heard.

Thomas Lockley, 39, lost concentration in his BMW, veered into the opposite lane and crashed head on with another car.

The accident caused significant damage to both vehicles.

He told the other motorist he was an off-duty policeman and was “very insistent” he could deal with the matter rather than get the police involved.

The 39-year-old then left the scene without providing his details.

The police were called and went to Lockley’s home in Verwood, Dorset.

Lockley, a frontline officer for Dorset police based at a station in Bournemouth, pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention and failing to stop after an accident.

He was told by magistrates that as a police officer he should have known not to leave the scene without giving his details.

Weymouth magistrates court heard Lockley was driving his two-year-old son around to get him to sleep at the time of the collision on the B3078 near Cranborne at 3.45pm on Jan 24.

He said he took his eyes off the road to adjust his son’s blanket when his black BMW drifted over the central line into the path of a Kia car.

Significant damage

Gareth Huston, prosecuting, said: “He negotiated the left-hand bend fine but then drifted across the central line into the path of the front offside of the vehicle. There was significant damage to both vehicles, they both stopped about 50 metres apart.

“He approached the other driver and said there was no need to get police involved as he was an off-duty police officer.

“[The other driver] asked him to identify himself and the defendant said he hadn’t got his ID with him. He asked where he was based and he said Bournemouth station. The defendant then walked away.

“A witness said ‘We should call the police’ and the defendant said ‘No, don’t call 999, I just veered off and hit the car’. He was very insistent he could deal with the incident. She took photos.

“The defendant left the scene prior to the police arrival and had not provided any details.”

Lockley called his father-in-law to pick up his young son and then made a “split-second decision” to leave the scene with them.

He later claimed he left when the other driver became “hostile”.

Miranda Zeffman, for the defence, said: “Mr Lockley often drives around the area to get his son to fall asleep. He momentarily took his eyes off the road to arrange his son’s blanket which had fallen down.

“He did tell the other driver he is a police officer, to reassure him. As a police officer he knows when there has been a crash where no one is injured and the road is not obstructed it is not best practice for the police to be called.

“There was no need to panic. Because of his job he knew what needed to happen.

“After he informed him he was a police officer, the conversation became quite hostile and he retreated to his car.

“When his father-in-law arrived to pick up his son, he made the split-second decision to leave with him, instead of remaining at the scene.

“It was a heat of the moment decision, one he deeply regrets.

“This was clearly a case of crossed wires, as opposed to a concerted effort to evade.”

She said Lockley was diagnosed with clinical depression and anxiety, which he takes medication for, and had spent large periods of time either off work or on reduced hours because of that.

She added he had been signed off again because of this incident.

Weymouth Magistrates’ Court heard he had no previous convictions.

Magistrates ordered him to pay £479 fine, a £132 surcharge and £110 prosecution costs. They also gave him seven points on his driving licence.