A disqualified driver deliberately rammed into a police car several times causing more than £17,000 of damage while trying to make a getaway.
The police flickered their blue lights to pull the white van over for questioning but the rogue driver suddenly clattered into the police car before dashing off.
Shocking dash- cam footage shows a high speed pursuit in Cambridge where the driver of a white Ford transit van repeatedly smashed into the police vehicle, trying to run it off the road.
Driver Paul Dei-Rossi, 31 and passenger Alex Winsor, 33, abandoned the van and made off into the field on foot.
Police had been alerted to the van after their automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) had flagged it up.
Detective constable Martyn Willis, the investigating officer, said: “Dei-Rossi could have stopped straight away for the officers but chose, instead, to do everything he could to get away, putting the officers and other members of the public at risk.
DC Willis added that the incident, which took place on July 31 last year caused extensive damage to the police car.
“The police vehicle was new on the road and the damage caused was extensive, which the judge clearly took a very dim view of,” he said.
The pair were later arrested after the police found Dei-Rossi’s drivers licence left on the seat of the van.
Dei-Rossi from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire admitted at Cambridge Crown Court to dangerous driving, criminal damage and driving whilst disqualified.
He was jailed for two years and three months on Tuesday (May29 and banned from driving for six years.
Winsor from Cambridge admitted to possessing cannabis and cocaine.
He was fined £200 in total.
