A man has been jailed after a pursuit in Dorking, Surrey, led officers to find Class A drugs.
The case is a prime example as to why it is important that police officers don’t just allow individuals who decide not to stop for the police to get away.
The professional driving of officers meant that they kept their distance from the fleeing vehicle and yet the driver still drove in a highly dangerous and completely reckless manner.
Jay Fenton, 22-years-old, of Nesham House, Hackney, was sentenced to three years and eight months in prison on Friday, 11 January at Guildford Crown Court, after he pleaded guilty to the following offences:
- Possession with intent to supply Crack Cocaine
- Possession with intent to supply Heroin
- Dangerous Driving
- Possession of Criminal Property
- Two counts of possession of a bladed article
Fenton was arrested following a pursuit that took place on Sunday, 9 December 2018, after a silver BMW came to officer’s attention on A24 Dorking as it showed up on automatic number plate recognition as previously failing to stop for police.
The pursuit began after the BMW indicated right at the crossroads and jumped the lights, officers followed the car for a number of minutes but it failed to stop.
PC Ed Stock, of the Roads Policing
“I was following the BMW for a number of miles, while it was overtaking members of the public and driving at 70 miles per hour in 30 mph zones, continuing to overtake vehicles throughout.
“My main focus was to ensure that no one was injured as a result of the driver’s lack of care for anyone but himself.
“Eventually the vehicle was driving on the wrong side of a dual carriageway and while doing this, it was damaged, with the rear tyre bursting.
“Even with this damage, it continued to overtake and undertake members of the public with only three working tyres before crashing into multiple parked vehicles and coming to a stop after crashing into a parked car.
“As you can see from the dash cam footage, Fenton was driving in excess of the speed limit through areas with a high amount of road users and pedestrians.
“I almost lost sight of him at one moment because there was not enough space for me to get through traffic, it is so important for drivers to ensure that they let emergency services through when blue lights are displayed, and would ask that drivers stay calm when they hear our sirens, and pull over and stop in a safe place with enough room for emergency services to pass.”
When officers arrested Fenton for dangerous driving, they found approximately £3,700 in his underwear, Fenton then disclosed there were two lock knives in the glove box.
Officers carried out a search of the vehicle and found the knives, and a Police Dog indicated there could be something in the holdall.
Surrey Polices’ Operation Viking team investigated and a search of the holdall and Fenton’s
Fenton was further arrested on suspicion of possessing an offensive
A spokesperson for Surrey Police said
‘Officers are proactively deterring criminals travelling from outside the county under Op Viking, which has been in operation since late 2016 to disrupt cross county border drug dealing and associated violence across
‘So far the team have secured more than 200 years’ custodial sentences for all convictions under this initiative’.
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