A MAN drove around a football pitch in Stratford before leading officers on a dangerous high-speed chase which included going the wrong way around a motorway junction roundabout.
During the pursuit chef Aaron Pritchard, age 20, also went across junctions without slowing, ran red lights and drove over speed bumps at 50mph, Warwick Crown Court was told.
Pritchard, of Common Lane, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified, failing to stop for the police, dangerous driving and having no insurance.
He was sentenced to six months in prison suspended for two years, ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work, made subject to a 10pm-8am curfew for three months and banned from driving for three years.
Prosecutor Stuart Clarkson said that on March 29 the police had reports of a car being driven in an anti-social manner around a football pitch in Stratford.
Officers saw the car at 8pm in Birmingham Road and indicated for it to stop.
When Pritchard failed to do so, three police vehicles tried to box him in – but he broke free and accelerated away through a red light and headed towards Henley and then Solihull.
During the pursuit he reached speeds of 80mph and several other vehicles had to take avoiding action.
Pritchard went across junctions without slowing, and drove at high speed along one road, described by the police as almost a one-lane road.
After a pursuit which covered about 15 miles, he turned into a dead-end road where he was boxed in for a second time and arrested.
When he was interviewed, he admitted driving dangerously, saying he had not wanted to be stopped because he was disqualified as a result of driving offences in March and April last year.
He added that it was his car, having bought it a few days earlier and hidden it round the corner from his home so his parents would not know he had it.
Mr Wilkins said that Pritchard knew about the dangers of traffic as last year he was knocked off his bicycle.
Pritchard, who came round in hospital, could not remember what happened, but has suffered losses to his senses of smell and taste as a result.
Sentencing, Judge Lockhart told him: “Going the wrong way round a roundabout at a motorway junction puts other people, such as your own mother and father, who may have been going the correct way round it in grave danger.
“And, to a degree, this was planned, because you bought a car and hid it round the corner so your mother and father didn’t know you had it.
“But I am just persuaded I can suspend the sentence.”
