Uninsured driver rammed police car near Warwick – and then led officers on a horrific 100mph chase in the wrong direction along the hard shoulder of a motorway

An uninsured driver deliberately rammed a police car after being stopped on the M40 near Warwick – and then led officers on a horrific 100mph chase in the wrong direction along the hard shoulder.

But Aaron Anderson escaped being jailed after making an impassioned plea to a judge at Warwick Crown Court.

Anderson (38) of Lower Church Lane, Tipton, West Midlands, had pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, assaulting an emergency worker, causing damage and having no insurance.

Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: “It was appallingly dangerous driving on the M40. When people drive in the way you were driving, they can kill someone.”

But she sentenced him to 20 months in prison suspended for two years, with a rehabilitation activity and a Thinking Skills programme, and banned him from driving for three years.

Prosecutor Philip Beardwell said that at 2.50pm on August 5, police officers on patrol on the M40 southbound saw Anderson driving a powerful MG ZT and indicated to him to pull over.

He stopped on the hard shoulder by the access road to the M40 services near Warwick, and the police car stopped several yards behind him.

One of them got out and walked to the passenger side of the MG and began speaking to Anderson through the window, while his female colleague remained in their vehicle.

But Anderson suddenly reversed back into the front of the police car before driving off along the hard shoulder towards the service area.

But he then re-joined the motorway and, still on the hard shoulder, headed back in the direction he had come from, against the flow of traffic.

As the officers gave chase, also on the hard shoulder, they reached up to 90mph ‘and still not catching him,’ said Mr Beardwell.

When he reached junction 13, Anderson then drove up the slip-road in the face of traffic heading towards him to join the motorway.

He then turned into Harebell Lane, heading towards the village of Barford, where he stopped and made off from the car on foot and tried to hide, but was found and arrested.

When he was interviewed, Anderson, who had previous convictions for driving offences and robbery, gave a statement in which he admitted the offences in full, saying he had reacted instinctively because of his previous encounters with the police.

But he added that he had looked in his mirror before reversing into the police car, and had not realised there was another officer in it, and had not meant to hurt her.

Robert Tolhurst, defending, said: “The pre-sentence report outlines the fact that the offences on this occasion were impulsive and born out of a negative attitude towards the police.

“The defendant, by his own estimation, at the age of 38, has been sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment in the course of his life. What he desperately wants is an opportunity to turn his life around.”

Mr Tolhurst said Anderson wants to work, but cannot get employment because of his record, so had been buying and selling cars, including the one he was driving that day, but had not been able to get insurance, again because of his record.

Judge de Bertodano asked Anderson directly: “If I give you a chance today, will you do the courses and comply with what probation tell you to do?”

Anderson replied: “Yes, because it’s someone’s help that I crave.”

Passing the suspended sentence, the judge told him: “This is not what I was going to do when I started this hearing, because when you drive like this and put police officers in a position where they are endangered, that deserves a lengthy sentence.”

And she warned Anderson: “If you mess up, you will come back to me, and it will be an immediate prison sentence. There is not going to be another chance.”