The woman who starred in a 10 minute Guardia Civil police car chase, caught on camera in the Gran Canaria municipality of Agüimes on January 21 has pleaded guilty to the facts and consented to of one year and one month in prison, the sentence requested by the prosecutor, after reaching an agreement with the prosecution and justice system.

 


The closed-door trial against reckless driver, Lioba Cazorla, was held on Wednesday in Criminal Court number 1 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria after she was investigated for two crimes against road safety, one of reckless driving and another for driving without a permit, at the hearing the defendant admitted the facts, reported by the Prosecutor’s Office, and reached the agreement that entailed a reduction of the custodial sentence initially requested from two years and six months to nine months in prison for the two crimes and four more months for breach of sentence.

The public prosecutor narrated the brief of provisional conclusions that at about 1:00 p.m. on January 21, 2021, the accused failed to stop for a Guardia Civil patrol car, having committing a traffic offence, after she was spotted using her mobile while driving on the GC1 main southern motorway, tried to evade capture in a car owned by a rental company that she was driving.

Despite taking her young son and two other companions being with her in the vehicle, she decided to ignore repeated attempts to stop the vehicle, resulting in a car chase, “with absolute disregard for the elementary rules of road safety,” undertaking at a speed “excessive for the circumstances of the road and without respecting traffic regulations” putting the lives of pedestrians and other drivers in the streets where she traveled at risk. The Guardia Civil agents made use of the light and acoustic signals and then began to pursue the defendant who took southbound entrance 23 towards the GC-191 highway in the direction of the town of Carrizal.

During her attempted flight the accused made several dangerous manoeuvres, overtaking other vehicles on their right side, even invading the hard shoulder and then changed lanes “abruptly” driving in the wrong direction towards oncoming traffic, as well as travelling across several streets and roundabouts in the opposite direction before colliding head-on with another vehicle at kilometre 3.5 of the GC-191, whose owner has not claimed compensation. After this, the woman made a U-turn, near to the Viveros El Rosal, to return towards Cruz de Arinaga and entered an urban area to drive to the La Goleta neighbourhood, where she jumped from the moving vehicle attempting to flee the scene, down Calle Lope de Vega until she was finally intercepted.

The attorney for the defendant, Yeray Álamo, explained that her client is “very sorry” for her involvement in the car chase. “Upon seeing the images, she has shown repentance,” said the lawyer who also explained that the accused was fleeing because she had an outstanding “warrant for another procedure” and acted from “nervousness” in the moment due to the warrant including an “order to search and capture”. The lawyer pointed out that they will ask for a suspension of the prison sentence once issued under the terms agreed yesterday.

Ms. Lioba Cazorla, who according to the prosecutor, has never obtained a driving license, is currently supposed to be serving a two-year prison sentence for a crime of injury, the final sentence for which was issued on January 24, 2019 by the Court of Instruction number 4 of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and she has various previous criminal records, one of which is for abuse in the family and two for driving without a license, to which were added aggravating circumstances due to her being a repeat offender. The defendant must now compensate the rental company Autoreisen SL in the amount of €399.01 for damages caused.