(Image: DURHAM POLICE)
A man paid to ferry a stolen Audi crashed into a police car after speeding off from officers as he tried to avoid arrest.
Connor Head was paid to drive the RS4 from Scotland to South Yorkshire when police tried to stop him in County Durham.
Police spotted the 24-year-old driving towards West Auckland in the early hours of September 5 last year, Teesside Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Ben Sayers said Head sped away on the A68 before crashing into a police car near Oakley Service Station.
Head drove the wrong way around a roundabout at speed as he tried to escape arrest, with a passenger in the car.
The court heard Head was driving the Audi on cloned number plates and had drugs in his system, but was not charged with drug-driving.
Mr Sayers said Head was serving a suspended sentence for drug offences when he committed the latest offence.
Head, of Thornton Street, Rotherham, admitted dangerous driving.
His barrister, Kathryn Wetherley, said Head understood how serious the offence was.
Connor Head (Image: Durham Constabulary)
She said Head had shown genuine remorse for causing the crash.
“That, by no means, takes away from the offence but it shows that he has regretted his actions and recognised that things could have gone much worse,” she said.
Recorder Taryn Turner jailed Head for 15 months and banned him from driving for two years and five months.
“You knew the car was displaying cloned number plates and had been stolen,” she said.
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“You had agreed to drive the car from Scotland to South Yorkshire for payment from someone who has never been apprehended.
“Police tried to stop that vehicle, though you initially slowed down, you then accelerated away and refused to stop.
“What followed was a sustained police pursuit through a number of residential areas and you drove at excessive speeds during the pursuit.”