A ‘stupid’ dad got behind the wheel of his partner’s Ford Focus – and smashed into a police car containing a cop and a BBC reporter.

Marvin Barker, 30, was driving the 52-plate hatchback to a job interview on June 10, 2019, Oxford Crown Court heard.

Police officers on patrol spotted that the car’s headlights were blue or purple. They drove up to the Focus at traffic lights and asked the driver to pull over.

Despite saying he would stop and talk to the officers, Barker made off at speed. Heavy traffic meant officers decided not to chase him, instead watching as he weaved in and out of the line of traffic on wet roads. The Focus went straight across a roundabout, nearly crashing into another vehicle.

He tried hiding in his Ford behind the Jewsons warehouse before emerging onto Beaumont Road, where he drove at speed and on the wrong side of the road in order to overtake a line of parked cars.

Barker crashed head-on into a police car coming in the opposite direction and in which BBC reporter Claire Barker was a passenger. The journalist described his driving as ‘very dangerous’.

The Ford driver fled and was found hiding in a bush. When he was arrested, he told a police officer: “How is it aggravated TWOC [taking a vehicle without consent] when it’s mine and my wife’s car?”

Mitigating, Julian Lynch said his client – who only pleaded guilty on the day of his trial in June - had shown genuine remorse.

“This was plainly reckless and stupid behaviour on his part. Your honour will see he went out that day intending to attend a job interview. He knew he shouldn’t be driving his partner’s car and didn’t have a licence and when he saw the police he panicked,” the barrister said.

Barker’s partner had recently given birth to their second child. The window fitter’s biggest fear was being sent to prison and unable to be a part of his children’s lives.

Judge Michael Gledhill QC said he would have jailed Barker had he been sentencing him closer to the time of the offence. However, since 2019 he had completed successfully a suspended sentence order imposed for dissimilar crimes.

Giving him 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, Judge Gledhill said: “You’re 30 years old. You’re behaving as a 16-year-old. It’s about time you grow up and take on your responsibilities which are now very onerous; two young children and a mother to support.”

Barker, of Evenlode, Banbury, admitted dangerous driving and driving without a licence or insurance. He was fined £400, ordered to pay £500 in costs and must do 80 hours of unpaid work and rehabilitation sessions. He was banned from driving for three years and will have to pass an extended retest.

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