Nottinghamshire Police was forced to deploy a heavy-duty stinger to bring to a halt an HGV driver who refused to stop on the A1.
Officers instructed the Iveco lorry driver to pull over near Cromwell, suspecting him of using false plates, but when he ignored them, they set off in pursuit. The police said even after his tyres were deflated by the device he continued driving the HGV for several minutes before abandoning his vehicle near Fernwood, Newark.
The suspect was found hiding in the undergrowth by a security guard from a nearby service station and arrested by officers. The driver later pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving while disqualified and he was jailed for 19 months and banned from driving for 6 years.
PC Haddon Smith, of Nottinghamshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit, said: “This was an extremely dangerous display of driving that could very easily have resulted in serious injury to police officers or other road users. It goes without saying that an HGV being driven in this way poses a considerable risk to other road users, so it was imperative that we ended this pursuit quickly.
After the lorry went over the stinger, the tyres started to smoke, I could smell burning rubber, and parts of tyre were being flung across the carriageway.”
