Vehicle thief jailed after he tried to run down Thames Valley Police officers
Tommy Coates, 24 has been jailed for dangerous driving and vehicle theft offences
Following Thames Valley Police investigations, a man has been jailed for two incidents of dangerous driving and vehicle theft in South Buckinghamshire and Slough.
A judge sentenced Tommy Coates, aged 24, of Mansion Lane, Iver, to two years in prison and disqualified him from driving for four years and eight months at Reading Crown Court on 12 April. Coates will also have to take an extended retest to get his licence back.
Coates pleaded guilty to two counts each of dangerous driving and driving without insurance, three counts of vehicle theft, and one count of driving whilst disqualified at the same hearing.
At around 1.15pm on 5 November last year, Coates stole a Ford Transit van from Grampian Way, Langley, while uninsured to drive.
Later in the day, officers saw Coates driving the van so tried to get him to pull over, but he refused.
In an attempt to evade police, Coates rammed the police vehicle with the van before running away on foot.
Exactly a week later, officers found Coates and he again tried to evade them by running away but officers caught and arrested him. Coates was charged that day (12/11).
Just over a month later, while on conditional court bail for those offences, Coates broke into a storage yard in Amersham Road, Chalfont St Giles, at around 11pm on 13 December last year.
Officers arrived as Coates was about to leave inside a stolen Isuzu lorry, which he was disqualified from driving.
An officer drew their Taser and ordered Coates to get out of the vehicle, but he ignored the demand and drove at him instead, narrowly avoiding them and the police vehicles.
Coates then drove extremely dangerously while being pursued by officers, including driving on the wrong side of the road, narrowly missing other vehicles and speeding on Amersham Road and through Chalfont St Giles.
At one point, Coates stopped by the junction with Lower Road, possibly to try to detach the trailer from the cab, but he got back in the lorry when he saw police and carried on driving an unstable vehicle.
Coates continued driving for another hour before eventually stopping and being arrested. He was charged with further offences the next day.
Detective Constable Lauren Rose said: “Tommy Coates showed a complete lack of regard for others during both of these dangerous driving incidents; demonstrated by his manner of driving, causing extensive damage to the vehicle stolen as well as the police vehicles.
“In fact, Coates rammed police vehicles multiple times with the van to get away and did not appear to care whether his actions could cause any injury.
“Coates then broke into a yard, stole a lorry, which he drove at a police officer and vehicles before driving extremely dangerously around Buckinghamshire, just over a month after the initial offences.
“It is fortunate Coates did not cause a collision and hurt someone, or even worse, through his reckless behaviour.
“Coates now has lot of time to reflect on his actions, which Thames Valley Police will never allow.”