A 26-year-old Kingston man, whose own lawyer admitted his client’s driving record is so bad he can’t see him ever getting a licence — and who’s never actually had a licence in all the time he’s been accumulating that record, according to Kingston’s Crown attorney — has now made it official.

Eric St. Louis is prohibited from driving for life by judge’s order.

St. Louis pleaded guilty in Kingston’s Ontario Court of Justice to dangerous driving; refusing to stop for police in an attempt to escape arrest; the Highway Traffic Act offence of driving while suspended and violating the Compulsory Automobile Insurance Act by operating an uninsured vehicle.

Justice Larry O’Brien gave him enhanced credit on 81 days of pretrial custody, sentenced him to a further 100 days in jail, fined him $10,000 for driving without insurance — his second conviction — and prohibited him for life from driving.

Crown attorney Ross Drummond said it all began on the afternoon of Sept. 26 when an off-duty Kingston Police constable saw a motorcycle pull up in front of 800 Princess St. and recognized the rider as St. Louis, who he knew to to be an unlicensed driver.

The cop immediately notified the patrol officer assigned to the area, providing a description of the bike and its licence number, the judge was told. And two minutes later St. Louis returned to his ride, put his helmet back on and drove off, east-bound on Princess Street.

Some time later, Drummond said, a patrol officer spotted the bike travelling north on Division Steet, near Fraser Street in rush-hour traffic.

She tried to pull him over, but Drummond said St. Louis looked back toward the cruiser, pulled to the right as though he was going to pull over and then manoeuvred back, pulling out between two northbound cars to take off, travelling at about 100 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.

Drummond said the patrol constable radioed back that she was breaking off pursuit because it was too dangerous.

Then at 4:45 pm., Drummond told the judge, police received reports of a single-vehicle accident at 1255 Princess St.

Drummond said it turned out to be St. Louis, who had lost control of his bike and hit a pole in the median.

He was arrested for dangerous driving and flight from police and taken to hospital to receive treatment for what Drummond said turned out to be minor injuries to his right wrist and knee. A records check also revealed that St. Louis was subject to three suspensions of his driver’s licence at the time, which Drummond said was a bit of fiction because he said St. Louis has never had a driver’s licence.

Defence lawyer Matt Hodgson estimated his client’s bad driving lasted about 10 minutes. He also told Justice O’Brien that, according to his client, the officers attending the scene of his collision were not sympathetic: One of them looked at St. Louis and said, "Karma’s a b—h."

Hodgson conceded "(St. Louis) has an unenviable record for a person his age." He also noted his client has been in custody year after year and Christmas after Christmas and yet for 10 months before this happened in September, he said St. Louis didn’t once get into trouble.

He urged the judge to sentence him to time served in recognition of that effort.

Drummond asked the judge to consider, however, that a man who doesn’t have a licence and has never had a licence, nonetheless has a substantial bad driving record and unpaid fines and "yet he owns a vehicle."

St. Louis told police the motorcycle was his own.

Drummond also asked the judge to think about the menace St. Louis’ situation represents, since his response to police attention was to bolt, putting other users of the road at risk.

St. Louis isn’t an unknown to Kingston Police, Drummond suggested, so the odds of his being spotted when he’s out driving illegally are high as is the likelihood that police will try to intervene.

Drummond also urged the judge to impose the minimum $10,000 fine for a second conviction for driving without insurance.

Those fines are usually reduced by justices of the peace because "$5,000 (on a first offence) is a rather draconian fine," Drummond admitted, "and it was designed to be a draconian fine."

He argued that there was no good reason not to impose it on St. Louis, "even though it means he’ll never have a licence."

Then, directing himself to St. Louis, he said: "Bottom line is, you can’t drive. You can’t drive. You have to get that message through your head."

St. Louis, given an opportunity to address Justice O’Brien, agreed there was no excuse for driving without a licence or taking off from police as he did.

"But I was doing so well, working and all," he told the judge. "I just didn’t want to give it all up."

sue.yanagisawa@sunmedia.ca