A banned driver from Markyate was chased by the police through Luton after his Ford Focus triggered a hit on an ANPR camera.
Harris Dadd, 23, was not insured because of the two year disqualification that had been imposed by magistrates seven months earlier.
Luton Crown Court heard the police followed the car through the town centre at one fifteen in the afternoon of Monday, October 14, last year.
Prosecutor Michael Shaw said: “There were four males inside. The driver was in a reclining position. It was followed along the A505. It did not stop for the police and accelerated, overtaking another vehicle.”
It was chased by the police along Ashton Road, Cowper Street, Tennyson Road, West Hill Road and Cutenhoe Road before going through a red light to enter London Road.
“A small plastic bag was thrown from the vehicle. It was never recovered,” said Mr Shaw. Dadd stopped in a car park at the end of London Road.
The police BMW blocked two exit doors of the Focus and officers went to the other side of the car and arrested the occupants. “Mr Dadd was seen smashing a white iPhone to prevent officers getting access to its contents,” said the prosecutor.
Dadd, of Parkfield, Markyate, appeared for sentence having last month pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and having no insurance. On March 27, 2019 he had been banned from driving for two years.
Defending, Martin Crawford-Brown said Dadd was “genuinely remorseful, ashamed and afraid of going to prison.”
He said that Dadd had been in a “terrible place” at the time of the offence, which has been hanging over him for a year.
He asked for a suspended sentence. Judge Gary Lucie agreed and passed a nine months sentence suspended for 18 months. Dadd was banned from driving for two years and must take an extended retest before he regains his licence.
He must also carry out 200 hours’ unpaid work, pay £100 to Bedfordshire police for the damage caused to the force’s BMW when the car was stopped, along with £150 costs.
The judge told him: “You were not insured and were disqualified. It was reckless and dangerous driving.“
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