A reckless driver has been sentenced to just two years and ten months in jail after ploughing into a traffic officer in Weoley Castle, Birmingham, last year.
The brave West Midlands Police officer has been left with life-changing injuries since the incident and has been unable to return to work.
James Clarke, 33, was pursued by police on 18th November 2022 after they identified his Ford Fiesta as stolen.
As he attempted to flee, Clarke struck PC Anderson with his vehicle, causing the officer significant injuries that have prevented him from returning to duty since.
The case is a stark reminder of the dangers faced by police officers daily. According to the Police Federation of England & Wales, in 2021 alone, there were 33,266 recorded assaults on police officers nationwide.
In addition to his jail sentence, Clarke has been banned from driving for two years after pleading guilty to causing injury by dangerous driving, failing to stop, having no insurance, and driving otherwise in accordance with a license.
DS Hinton, from West Midlands Police, said:
“Clarke was reckless behind the wheel as he tried to flee from a pursuing police vehicle.
“He then struck an officer who was attempting to deploy a stinger to bring the vehicle to a stop. He showed complete disregard by then continuing to drive, before the Fiesta finally came to a halt.
“Our traffic officer has been left with injuries which mean he cannot return to active duty at the moment, and play his role in keeping the roads safe and protecting the public.
“Clarke has quite rightly lost his freedom.”
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2 years and 10 months for that little lot? Seriously? He will be out 32 months. What an absolute outrage. He should have been locked up for at least 10 years for injuring the officer alone plus a decent amount more for driving without a licence, no insurance, dangerous driving, fleeing from the police and driving a stolen car. A proper total of around 20 years would seem appropriate, with no early release.
We need to lock criminals like this up for a good, long time, not because they will be rehabilitated but rather to ensure that the law abiding public is safe.
Good Clark has been put behind bars but sentence is far to lenient he will be out in just over a year whilst PC Anderson has a life sentence due to life changing injuries for doing his job. This is unacceptable A serving Police Officer has the right to expect to return home uninjured and safely to his family and when in hopefully very limited occasions a Serving Police Officer is injured in the line of his duty he has the right to expect the person who caused those injuries to be punished accordingly. 2 years 10 months is not punished accordingly a sentence of at least 10 years should have been handed down at least then Clark would be off the streets for 5 years if served 50% of sentence behind bars.