Warwick man jailed after leading police on high-speed chase through the town

Nathan Kapoor then tried to escape on foot, but was caught and arrested, and pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, having no insurance and driving while disqualified.

Kapoor (28) of Hardwick Field Lane, Warwick, was jailed for ten months by the judge at Warwick Crown Court who also banned him from driving for 20 months.

Prosecutor Rebecca Da Silva said that at shortly before 11pm on December 3 the police saw Kapoor driving a Transit van in Princes Drive, Leamington, and tried to stop him.

But he sped off along Emscote Road before making a right turn into All Saints Road and then through housing estates with cars parked on both sides of the road until he emerged onto the A425 Birmingham Road in Warwick.

Kapoor went the wrong way round a traffic island as he turned into Theatre Street, and then headed past the racecourse before turning onto the Chase Meadow Estate.

But after a pursuit which Miss Da Silva said had lasted for eight minutes over a distance of five miles, during which the Transit had also mounted pavements, it ran out of petrol.

Kapoor, who had previous convictions for 26 offences including a number of driving offences, climbed out and tried to make off on foot, but was caught and arrested.

Anthony Bell, defending, said Kapoor had been in work as an electrician since his release from his last prison sentence in 2017, working mainly in London at venues including the O2, but also at exhibition centres including the NEC.

But it was a ‘down time’ from that work at the time, and Kapoor was working from DHL.

He could not afford the cost of getting to and from work by taxi, so had taken a chance by driving.

On that day, having finished his shift, he had picked up his dog from a friend’s home when the police tried to stop him because of a defective brake light – and he panicked.

Mr Bell said Kapoor had just got his own flat and, asking the judge to ‘step back from passing an immediate sentence,’ added that he would lose his job and the flat if he was jailed.

But jailing Kapoor, Judge Anthony Potter told him: “You drove when you knew you were disqualified from driving and you knew you didn’t have any insurance, and you drove dangerously.

“You showed a complete disregard for the court order banning you from driving, because it was inconvenient. Even in the pre-sentence report you showed little regard for the danger you posed.

“The prospects of you hitting a pedestrian or someone getting out of their car must have been multiple.

“The fact that you didn’t collide with anyone was just your very good fortune, and the good fortune of anyone who might have been there.

“And you didn’t pull over because the police were trying to stop you, you only pulled over because your van ran out of petrol.”