Unlicensed driver sent to jail

An unlicensed driver has been jailed for seven months after being caught behind the wheel of a car while on a suspended prison sentence. James Francis Shenfield, 36, was handed the sentence in Manjimup Magistrate’s Court on Thursday where the caught heard he was caught driving without a valid licence on May 15. The Rocky Gully man had been stopped by police for a breath test just before midnight when he failed to produce his licence. The court heard Shenfield had been arrested at Albany Police Station on June 12 last year, after attempting to resist by lying down on the floor, requiring multiple officers to drag him to a cell where he then spat over the cell door and walls. The officers then attempted to remove him from the cell to transfer him to Albany Health Campus, believing he was not of sound mind. As they removed him from the cell he spat at two of the officers present. Shenfield, pictured, was then taken to hospital and sedated. Then in October last year, he was arrested again by Albany Police after they found him sitting behind the wheel of his car when he was not allowed to drive. Shenfield resisted arrest again by refusing to leave the vehicle, requiring the officers to forcibly remove him from the car and call for back-up. Once outside the car, Shenfield lay down on the ground and refused to move. Three police officers had to pick him up and carry him to the police wagon where he kicked out and abused them once inside the police car. Shenfield had been handed a 10-month suspended sentenced in Albany Magistrate’s Court in January. After acknowledging his guilt in Manjimup Magistrate’s Court last week, Shenfield spoke for 20 minutes about how he had never received a “proper trial” in Albany and had not been given a chance to have his say until after he had been found guilty. Magistrate Linda Keane said she was going to trigger his jail term but reduce it to seven months. She also fined him $1000.