Police officer waded into river to catch fleeing dangerous driver

Thanks to the determination of PC James Cornish, 23-year-old Shane Reid was finally apprehended and charged. At Carlisle's Rickergate court, Reid pleaded guilty to three allegations: dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, and driving with no valid insurance. Prosecutor George Shelley outlined the offences.

Police became involved at 11.30pm on April 5 last year after Police Scotland contacted Cumbria Police to report that the defendant, a banned driver, had been seen driving a silver Transit van towards Longtown. Arriving in the High Street area of the town a short time later, PC Cornish spotted Reid in the van, but the defendant, whose van lights were switched off, was seen driving "at speed." The officer began to follow him. Despite the street's 30mph speed limit, the van reached 48mph.

Though it slowed briefly at a junction, the van sped away along the A7 and on to various country roads, fleeing from the police car for ten minutes, at one point speeding "blind" through a junction near a farmhouse. The van then turned into a farm lane. "The defendant used the vehicle to ram a closed gate, resulting in it being flung from its hinges," said Mr Shelley.

Even though the lane was muddy and waterlogged, the defendant refused to stop. But when it was clear that the van could move no further, Reid jumped out and ran away, crossing a field and then wading through a river to the opposite bank. "But the officer kept pursuing the defendant," continued Mr Shelley. "The defendant finally gave himself up and apologised."

The court heard that Reid, who lives at a property off the B7076, near Kirkpatrick Fleming, Scotland, was given an 18-month driving ban for earlier offending. Katie Scattergood, for Reid, accepted that the court's sentencing powers were insufficient for the offences before the court and that the most appropriate sentencing venue was the city's crown court. Magistrates agreed and sent the case to Carlisle Crown Court for a hearing on May 20.

They granted the defendant unconditional bail until that hearing and imposed an interim disqualification which sits alongside the current full driving ban.