Drug driver jailed after 'dangerous' 21 mile police chase

Video: Thames Valley Police

A drug driver has been jailed for 18 months after leading police on a 21 mile car chase through Oxfordshire.

Adrian Osiecki, 30, from Coventry, was driving with false plates on the A34 on February 1 when he caught the attention of officers.

Osiecki undertook a series of dangerous manoeuvres, including overtaking vehicles on the hard shoulder and the central reservation.

Police cars and a helicopter were deployed to intercept the black Mercedes C200 in case it left the motorway.

Osiecki hit speeds of more than 140 miles an hour before crashing on a roundabout and fleeing from the scene.

Russ Woolford, National Police Air Service, said: "Police helicopters are really central to how a police force on the ground manages a pursuit.

"The helicopter can provide really good updates, video, evidence, and actually warn the police drivers of what's ahead because they have the better view."

He was arrested by officers who found he had no insurance, an expired driving licence and was drug driving.

Osiecki pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, drug driving, driving a vehicle while otherwise than in accordance with a licence, driving with no insurance and failing to stop for police, in a hearing at Warwick Crown Court last Tuesday (21 September).

Chief Inspector Mike Bettington, Joint Operations Roads Policing Unit, Hampshire & Thames Valley Police, said: "Thankfully no one was hurt in this instance, despite the complete disregard this gentleman had towards the motoring public or himself or our officers who have to put themselves on the line to detain him.

"We will continue to combine our intelligence systems, our deployment tactics, to identify, detain and prosecute people who do this sort of behaviour and those that pose the greatest risk to the motoring public.

"Thankfully they are rare but that's what we'll do if we have to and that's what we do regularly."

Investigating officer PC Steve Lane of the Joint Operations Unit for Roads Policing, based at Bicester, said: "The manner of Osiecki's driving was utterly horrendous, putting both himself and other road users at great risk.

"This is a significant jail term for a dangerous, unlicensed and uninsured driver, who, while under the influence of drugs, was so intent to get away that he drove at speeds more than twice the limit, showing no regard for the safety of other road users."