A dangerous runaway driver rammed into a police car and reached speeds of up to 90mph in a 50mph limit during a desperate attempt to evade justice.
Other drivers were forced to slow, stop or take evasive action in rush-hour traffic as the driver continued with his getaway attempt after being spotted by officers in the Mansfield area.
He overtook vehicles on the wrong side of the road, scattering oncoming traffic, and clipped a member of the public’s car at a roundabout as he headed towards Nottingham city centre.
In tonight’s brand new episode of Police Interceptors, officers manage to bring the pursuit to a safe conclusion by making tactical contact with the vehicle and arrest the driver.
A 17-year-old boy, who can’t be named for legal reasons, was subsequently charged and convicted of driving offences. He was banned from driving for three years and received a detention and training order for eight months when he appeared for sentencing at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates’ Court on 21 January 2022.
As well as this, Interceptors track down a drink-driver who reached speeds of 100mph while leading police on a dangerous pursuit around Nottingham.
Nigel Bilsbrough’s driving was so erratic that officers were left with no choice but to temporarily abandon the chase.
The 54-year-old’s drunken antics first came to the attention of police after he was seen attempting a dangerous U-turn on Forest Road, Radford.
He then sped away in the opposite direction and was spotted swerving all over the road and into oncoming traffic, forcing other drivers to emergency stop to avoid him.
Bilsbrough was clocked driving more than double the speed limit at this point, with pursuing officers making the decision to pull back, to reduce the chances of a collision taking place.
After activating automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, police were able to track Bilsbrough down just a few minutes later, in the early hours of 21 August 2021.
Bilsbrough then made the decision to try and escape from police by travelling at around 100mph along the ring road, towards Eastwood.
Trained traffic officers were able to catch up with him though and safely brought the car to a stop on the A610, with Bilsbrough then failing a road-side breathalyser test.
Bilsbrough, of James Street, Kimberley, appeared before Nottingham Crown Court on 21 June 2022, having pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, drink-driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.
He was sentenced to 14 months in prison and disqualified from driving for three years.
Chief Inspector Simon Allardice, of Nottinghamshire Police, said: “Officers did a great job in both these instances to safely put the brakes on irresponsible drivers whose dangerous driving put the lives of others at serious risk.
“In both cases the offenders’ actions risked their own safety, as well as putting others sharing the roads with them in danger.
“Positive results such as these show how the force is keeping the pressure on to catch people who behave in this way before they cause serious harm as well as working hard every day to keep people safe and reduce these sort of offences on our roads.
“I’d like to commend our officers for the professionalism they showed throughout to rapidly track the drivers down and bring the incidents to a safe conclusion. It should serve as an example to others of how seriously we take all road offences of this nature.”
The Interceptors’ stops are just a snapshot of the latest action-packed episode which also features more great crime-busting work by Nottinghamshire Police’s knife crime teams.
Catch all this and more on Channel 5 at 8pm.
