Danger driver jailed after ramming into police car TWICE during pursuit

A Queensbury man who deliberately reversed his car into a police vehicle TWICE during an early morning pursuit has been jailed for nine months.
Bradford Crown CourtBradford Crown Court
Bradford Crown Court

Bradford Crown Court heard that 35-year-old Richard Edwards had only been released from a previous jail term the day before he was spotted behind the wheel of an Audi A4 vehicle on Chat Hill Road, Thornton.

Prosecutor Philip Adams said Edwards, who was uninsured, initially pulled over and a police officer got out of his car and shouted at him to turn his engine off.

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But Edwards then pulled forward before putting the Audi into reverse and driving at speed into the front of the police car.

During the subsequent pursuit Edwards, of Upper Meadows, Queensbury, tried to drive between bollards which were blocking his way but the gap was too small.

Mr Adams described how the Audi was again reversed into the police car before Edwards tried to force the vehicle through the bollards.

He told the court that that the Audi effectively "beached" itself on one of the bollards and Edwards ran off.

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Edwards was later arrested and identified as the driver of the Audi by the police officer and he accepted he had bought the vehicle after being released from prison the day before.

He claimed that someone else had been driving the Audi at the time of the pursuit on September 8, but he eventually pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, driving without insurance and otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

The court heard that Edwards, who appeared via a video link to HMP Leeds, had already been recalled to serve out the previous jail sentence and he was not due for release until April next year.

The Recorder of Bradford Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC sentenced Edwards to nine months in jail for the dangerous driving offence and banned him from driving for a total period of 22-and-a-half months.

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Edwards will also have to take a mandatory retest at the end of his driving ban.

"Obviously dangerous driving is a big problem" the judge told Edwards.

"A lot of people are doing it and the risk to life and limb is really very severe."