High-speed chase ended when police rammed stolen BMW X1

POLICE rammed a stolen BMW X1 to put an end to a high-speed car chase.

Kieran Ward drove at speeds of 70mph in 30mph residential areas during the afternoon pursuit.

The 20-year-old, from Wymans Road, Cheltenham, was locked up for 14 months when he appeared at Gloucester Crown Court.

The BMW had been stolen during burglary in the town the day before the pursuit on February 14.

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Prosecutor Julian Kesner said Ward almost collided with a garden wall and did a handbrake turn before the vehicle was hit by a marked police car at Chervil Close in Tredworth, Gloucester.

Ward was eventually caught by three officers on top of a garden gate trying to escape.

He said he had nothing to do with the burglary and was moving the car for a small amount of money. He admitted dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, driving without a licence, driving without insurance, failing to provide a specimen, taking a vehicle without consent and failing to stop when required by an officer.

He was disqualified for driving for two years as well as being jailed.

A 22-year-old Gloucester man arrested on suspicion of burglary in connection with the case has been bailed until March 28.

Judge Jamie Tabor QC told the court Ward had written a letter himself saying the chase was "bang out of order and extremely dangerous to the public".

He told Ward: "You held the public to ransom as you drove in this extremely dangerous manner. Miraculously no one was hurt."

Following the case, the judge sent out a warning that dangerous drivers who put public safety at risk will get long jail sentences. He spoke out after sentencing three young defendants in separate dangerous driving cases – including Ward – to a total of more than ten years between them.

"The court is utterly fed up of hearing of young men driving at high speed, normally when they are disqualified, around the city centre," said the judge.

"If young men are going to do this they have got to know and they will know – and the court sends out this message – that they will go to prison for as long as the court thinks proper."