Jail for Jaguar driver who ploughed into a police car then sped off - The Coventry Observer

Jail for Jaguar driver who ploughed into a police car then sped off

Coventry Editorial 23rd Jan, 2017 Updated: 23rd Jan, 2017   0

AN UNINSURED driver who had been drinking ploughed a Jaguar into a police car late at night in a Coventry street as officers were dealing with an abandoned vehicle.

A police car chase ensued after officers in Foleshill Road suddenly heard a loud screeching as a Jaguar skidded towards them and hit one of their cars.

The uninsured Jaguar driver sped away and led officers on a ‘prolonged’ pursuit through Coventry before he was caught after turning into a dead end.

Ruben Stan (37) of Oaston Road, Nuneaton, was jailed at Warwick Crown Court for 17 months and banned from driving for two years.




He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, having no insurance and no licence, failing to stop after an accident, and failing to provide a specimen for analysis.

Prosecutor Amy Edinborough said that at 11.30pm on November 15, Stan, far too late, struggled to take avoiding action before hitting the marked police car.


During the police chase, Stan tried to overtake a VW Golf as a police car was coming in the opposite direction, and hit the Golf as he attempted to get between them, but again failed to stop.

Miss Edinborough added Stan had no convictions in this country, but was subject to a 16-month suspended prison sentence imposed for firearms offences in his native Romania in 2014.

Paul O’Keefe, defending, said that on the day of the incident Stan had been told of a bereavement in his family, a cousin who had taken his own life, and had gone to a friend’s home where he had three glasses of whisky.

He then took the decision to drive his friend’s car to pop out for some cigarettes.

Mr O’Keefe said there was now an international arrest warrant for him, applied for in Romania because, it was believed, the driving matter had put him in breach of the suspended sentence.

Jailing Stan, Judge Sylvia de Bertodano told him: “You were driving at high speed after you had been drinking.

“The first thing you did was to skid sideways into a stationary police car which had an officer in it who was injured as a result.

“But instead of stopping, you sped off and were pursued by the police for some distance, driving in residential areas at 40mph late at night, and driving in a dangerous way, erratically and on the wrong side of the road.

“You then hit another car. That too had someone in it who was injured, but that still did not stop you, and you only stopped when you reached a dead end.

“If you drive like that, particularly after you have been drinking, you can kill someone.”

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