Young driver tries to flee police by reversing away from officers before parking on railway line
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A panicked driver reversed away from police as he tried to evade officers before he led them on a 90mph chase and parked on a railway line.
Jack Plews, 22, was told he could have killed someone as he raced along narrow streets, jumped red lights and drove the wrong way around a roundabout in a £130 Renault Clio.
He was jailed for 10 months and banned from driving for 17 months after he admitted dangerous driving, endangering the safety of railway passengers and driving without a licence or insurance.
Teesside Crown Court was shown clips of the 19-minute dashcam video in which Plews, of Thornaby, reversed away from police as he tried to avoid being arrested.
Officers were forced to drive at 90mph speeds as Plews led them on a chase around Norton and Stockton at around 1am on May 31.
(Image: Gazette Live)
(Image: Gazette Live)
He drove the wrong way around a roundabout, on the wrong side of the road, in the middle of the road and through red lights.
Plews finally drove on to railway tracks, on the Darlington to Stockton line, and parked there before he was snared by police, the Gazette Live reports .
Jailing him for his first offence, Judge Sean Morris said: “You’re a thoroughly ordinarily decent young man, but young men in cars and police chases equals prison.
“When you get on the wing, you tell them that people who drive and flee away from police, this is what happens.
(Image: Gazette Live)
“And the young men of this area need to know, when the blue light comes on you stop, otherwise you go to prison.
“It’s got to go out that anybody who flees from the police in this fashion goes away.”
“What you did on that night is put at risk the lives of people. You were hurtling down narrow streets in housing areas at ridiculous speeds.
“How do you know there wasn’t some drunken party just finishing and a couple of teenage kids stumble in front of you? You’d have been up for manslaughter.
(Image: Gazette Live)
“You were putting at risk the police who were trying to stop you.
“They don’t know you’re of good character. They don’t know you’re just fleeing because you stupidly just bought the car.
“For all they know, you could have been a serious criminal with something to hide.
“There could have been all sorts of mayhem.
“You don’t know if there’s any freight trains at night hurtling down the line. You could have killed a train driver.”
(Image: Gazette Live)
Duncan McReddie, defending, asked the judge to pass a suspended sentence, saying Plews had risked others’ lives and the life and career he had built for himself.
He said the groundworker bought the car for £130 to help his job prospects: “He goes out in it when he shouldn’t.
"He sees the police. He panics and he runs. That’s one aberrative act, hitherto unknown in the life of Jack Plews.
“He’s truly sorry and truly remorseful. You won’t see this young man again.”
Judge Morris said it was a “one-off” as he passed a reduced prison sentence as well as the driving ban.