A SOUTH Cumbrian man involved in a dangerous high-speed police chase, as a driver sped at almost 100mph the wrong way along the M6, has been spared from an immediate jail term.

A judge told 24-year-old Kyle Salt that the driving which led to his prosecution had triggered the 'most dangerous' police chase he had dealt with for years.

Recorder Julian Shaw, sitting at Carlisle Crown Court, also praised the police officer whose skill and bravery safely ended the pursuit.

Salt had earlier admitted an aggravated offence of allowing himself to be carried in a vehicle – his brother’s car – which had been taken without consent.

The pursuit, in the early hours of February 16, 2020, involved an “elderly Vauxhall Vectra” car which was driven dangerously over a distance of up to 23 miles, prosecutor Tim Evans told the court.

The car was initially driven away from Kendal town centre and through a series of villages, at times with the driver reaching speeds of up to 70mph.

The car then headed the wrong way along the A590 dual carriageway, taking the two occupants to the M6. The Vauxhall then joined the M6.

For a distance of more than 10 miles, the car drove into oncoming traffic on the M6. One police officer who was involved in the pursuit reported the Vectra at times reaching a speed of almost 100mph.

Mr Evans spoke of the “incredibly courageous” decision of police constable Martin Wilcock to stop the fleeing car by expertly ramming it from the side.

He did that so successfully that both he and the two occupants of the fleeing car – Salt and Robbie Archer, 23  – walked away. This happened on the motorway near to the site of Lancaster University.

The officer later said: “I could not allow it to continue further.” The threat posed by the driver as he sped the wrong way along the motorway, heading towards a busier section of the motorway, was “incredibly high,” observed the officer.

Had there been a head on collision, the closing speed of any impact would have been in the region of 140mph plus.

“The effect would have been devastating,” said the officer. “He believed that other road users, including himself, were at severe risk,” said Mr Evans.

When the officer used his car to expertly ram the Vectra from the side, it did come to a halt but even then, the driver - whose identify has never been confirmed - attempted to drive away – this time in the right direction.

News and Star: Danger: The defendant was in a car that drove the wrong way on the motorway for more than 10 miles.Danger: The defendant was in a car that drove the wrong way on the motorway for more than 10 miles. (Image: Google)

But the car came to a halt a few hundred metres along the road.

“This piece of driving was the most dangerous I have witnessed in my 12-year career as a police officer," continued the constable involved. "I can’t fathom why anyone would drive in such a manner and place the lives of everyone concerned at risk.

“I truly hope that I will never had to perform such a manoeuvre again in my career.”

As he passed sentence, Recorder Julian Shaw told the defendant: “You and your close friend Archer were in your brother’s car and engaged between you in quite possibly the most dangerous police chase that I have had to deal with for a number of years.”

The judge expressed his surprise that nobody had died or suffered serious injury, saying this happened by only “the grace of God.”

The chase saw the Vectra being driven through rural areas and villages, often on the wrong side of A-roads and eventually along the A590 and then the motorway, travelling the wrong way into oncoming traffic.

Such an extended period of driving the wrong way along the M6 beggared belief, said the judge.

Recorder Shaw said: “I recall the extraordinary professionalism and downright  bravery of Police Constable Wilcock, who had to engage in the most technical and most dangerous and most self-sacrificing manoeuvre, effectively deliberately to drive in to the vehicle…

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“The skill level that he demonstrated in being able to hit the side of your car and thus avoid three funerals is extraordinary.”

“He walked away and you and Mr Archer walked away.”

The police officer suffered shoulder and neck pain after the collision and he experienced a worsening of his tinnitus. He felt unable after the incident to drive alone and was “extremely uneasy” with the prospect of carrying out driver stops.

Claire Larton, for Salt, of High Lea Walk, Ormsgill, Barrow, said that in the two years and three months since the offence the defendant had committed no further offences. Now the father of a young child, he was genuininely mortified by his reckless behaviour that day.

He was a "very different person" to the 21-year-old who had been in that car on the M6 during the police chase. He no longer associates with people who were negative influences, said the barrister. 

Recorder Shaw told Salt that had he been prosecuted for the dangerous driving that happened on that day he would have been immediately jailed.

But given the offences admitted – being carried in the car and failing to give police a breath specimen for analysis – the said he could avoid that course.

The Recorder imposed an 18-month jail term, suspended for two years, with 260 hours of unpaid work and a four month 8pm to 6am curfew.

The defendant, who must pay the police officer involved £500 compensation, was also given a two-year driving ban and must sit an extended retest before he can drive without being supervised again.

Salt's co-defendant Archer, of Robert Street, Barrow, was cleared of aggravated vehicle taking after a trial.

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