A dangerous van driver ploughed into vehicles and went the wrong way around a roundabout during a high speed cop chase.
Police received reports that the Ford Transit had been taken without the owner’s consent when it was spotted being driven by 40-year-old Ashley Barnes.
He ran multiple red lights, drove on the wrong side of the road and sped anti-clockwise around a roundabout.
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Barnes accelerated away from police, leaving a “trail of broken wing mirrors in his wake.”
The van was left with a damaged door flapping as Barnes hit police cars and other vehicles.
After police called off their chase, the smashed-up van was abandoned on Edale Road, Mansfield, as reported by Need To Know.
Barnes and passenger Laura Tomlinson were found in a locked storeroom in a nearby block of flats.
Pc Rachel Evans said Barnes’ driving was “completely unacceptable” and “put everyone else on the roads in danger”.
“The standard of driving demonstrated during this incident was completely unacceptable and put everyone else on the roads in danger,” she said.
“Thankfully for each of them and for Ashley Barnes too, this wasn’t the case, with nobody hurt as a result of his erratic driving decisions that day.
“After Barnes had taken the van, he then collected Tomlinson from a nearby location, before using the vehicle to ram a police car and damage other vehicles during a lengthy pursuit.
“Neither of them was ultimately able to get away with what they’d done, however, and we’re pleased to see them finally be sentenced for their actions.”
Last Wednesday (7 May) at Nottingham Crown Court, Barnes, of Vale Road, Mansfield Woodhouse, received a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for dangerous driving.
Tomlinson, 39, also of Vale Road, was found guilty of being carried in a vehicle without the owner’s consent and was given a community order requiring her to participate in drug rehabilitation.
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