Footage shows van driver ramming police cars

Police footage shows the moment a driver rammed into cars as he made his getaway from officers.

Police said they had received reports a van had been taken without the owner's consent when it was spotted being driven by 40-year-old Ashley Barnes.

He ran red lights, drove on the wrong side of the road, and sped anti-clockwise around a roundabout in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire.

On Wednesday at Nottingham Crown Court, Barnes, of Vale Road, Mansfield Woodhouse, received a 15-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, for dangerous driving.

His passenger Laura Tomlinson, 39, also of Vale Road, was found guilty of being carried in a vehicle without the owner's consent, and was given a community order requiring her to participate in drug rehabilitation.

Police said they had received reports the van had been taken without the owner's consent.

The Ford Transit was spotted travelling towards Mansfield Woodhouse at about 09:30 BST on 2 June 2023.

Barnes accelerated away from police, leaving a "trail of broken wing mirrors in his wake", police said.

The van was left with a damaged door flapping as Barnes hit police cars and other vehicles.

After police called off their chase, the smashed-up van was abandoned in Edale Road, Mansfield, and Barnes and Tomlinson were found in a locked storeroom in a nearby block of flats.

PC Rachel Evans said Barnes' driving was "completely unacceptable" and "put everyone else on the roads in danger".

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