Police found banned nitrous oxide in the car being driven by Reshan Kajathas
Reshan Kajathas was pulled over while driving in Tudor Road, Leicester(Image: Google)
Police had to use pepper spray on a De Montfort University student after he injured a female police officer trying to escape.
Reshan Kajathas, 20, was driving his girlfriend’s VW Golf – without insurance – along Tudor Road in Leicester with banned nitrous oxide in the vehicle when a police car put on its blue lights and pulled the vehicle over.
At Leicester Magistrates’ Court on Friday (November 28), where Kajathas pleaded guilty to driving without insurance, possessing class C drugs and resisting arrest, prosecutor Abena Achiaa described what happened.
She said: “On November 13 at 4.15pm officers had reason to stop the defendant who was driving on Tudor Road. The defendant seemed quite keen to get out of his car.
“They put him in handcuffs to prevent his escape as he seemed like he was trying to get away and actively resisting the handcuffs.
“Officers had to pin the defendant against the car. An officer’s fingers were bent back, which caused some pain.
“Captor spray was used to his face and he was taken to the floor, where he continued to resist. In the car, the officers found the class C drugs.”
Berinder Chawla, representing Kajathas, said he was not using the nitrous oxide – also known as laughing gas – for recreational reasons but to cope with his depression.
He said his client, who is a first-year finance and accounting student at De Montfort University, was feeling very isolated in Leicester.
He said: “He has been inhaling the drug as a means of coping with severe and long-standing depression.
“It’s not recreational, but to manage feelings of distress and hopelessness.
“He feels isolated with no close friends. There’s a risk the university will now take action.”
The magistrates fined Kajathas £61 and ordered him to pay £85 court costs and a £24 victim surcharge. He had six points put on his licence and was also ordered to pay £50 compensation to the injured Leicestershire Police officer.
