A man who stole a car and crashed into police cars in a bid to evade arrest has been jailed.
Evan Pidgeon, 32, of Chilwell, was arrested after a high-speed police pursuit at around 3.45 am on Wednesday 22 July.
The chase began after an officer on a proactive patrol spotted a silver Ford Mondeo acting suspiciously in Middleton Boulevard at around 3.30 am.
When the officer followed the Mondeo, they clocked that it was travelling in at 40mph in a 30mph road. It was at this point, the officer moved to intercept the car and, rather than stop, Pidgeon began to drive at reckless speed.
In a chase that led to Derby Road, Pidgeon drove at speeds in excess of 90mph in order to evade the officer.
Persistent work from the highly-trained officer led to Pidgeon slowing down, enabling the police car to make an attempt to overtake and the Mondeo and bring the chase to a safe conclusion.
Pidgeon resisted, crashed into the police car and drove off at speed. At this moment, another police car joined the pursuit and attempted to block the road but the Mondeo drove into the rear end of the police car.
The Mondeo lost control. It swerved off the road and collided with a tree – Pidgeon was arrested.
Pidgeon had taken the car from a flat in Gayrigg Court in Chilwell.
On Tuesday 19 August, he was jailed at Nottingham Crown Court for a year. He has also been disqualified from driving for two years.
Detective Inspector Steven Wragg, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Pidgeon’s mindless behaviour could have had fatal consequences.
“It was a foolish attempt to evade capture and our officers did a fantastic job to arrest him without anyone being seriously hurt.
“Driving offences are taken very seriously by Nottinghamshire Police and we will always take appropriate action against those found to be committing such offences.”