A MAN has been jailed after chasing and attacking a woman in a Herefordshire town before drug-driving.

Jamie Higgins entered guilty pleas to one count of assault by beating, one count of driving a motor vehicle with a proportion of a specified controlled drug above the specified limit, using a motor vehicle on a road or public place without third-party insurance and driving a motor vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford last month.

The court heard from Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor Camila Toscano that Higgins, who was represented at the hearing by defence solicitor Matthew Lewis of law firm Coulson Read Lewis, had assaulted a woman in Ross-on-Wye in an incident on September 11 last year.

The offence of assault by beating is a crime under section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988.

Magistrates sentenced Higgins to six weeks in prison for the offence, saying it was so serious that only a custodial sentence could be justified. They added that the victim had been forced to flee from Higgins, and tried to seek refuge from him, but he pursued and deliberately attacked her.

He must also pay a £154 victim surcharge for this offence.

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The 51-year-old was also sentenced for driving offences, which were drug-driving and driving without insurance or a licence.

He was caught behind the wheel of a black Mini by police with 17 micrograms of cocaine in his blood, exceeding the legal driving limit of 10.

For these offences, he was banned from driving for 12 months.