Screeching tyres and a near miss proved to be the warning sound that dangerous driver Jesse Billingham ignored as he led police on a five-and-a-half mile chase from Didcot.
CCTV footage, which has now been released by the Crown Prosecution Service, showed the driver of a Vauxhall estate slamming their brakes as the 23-year-old narrowly avoided slewing his Renault Clio into the larger car.
Despite that near-miss, he sped away and within minutes struck a van and a fence in Long Wittenham.
Video footage from a nearby house captured a dazed Billingham open the driver’s side door and run from the scene – as other drivers got out their vehicles to try and piece together what had happened.
Police were soon on the scene and, with the help of a driver, found the at-large Clio driver.
Sentencing him to 18 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years last week, Recorder John Hardy QC said: “Members of the public viewing these pieces of CCTV footage and hearing the details of your escapade on April 20 this year would take the view that you richly deserve to go to prison.
“You know that. I take the same view.
“But what members of the public do not know is that you’ve attended Turning Point, which is a tough course.
“You’ve been cooperative in your attendance, you’ve been positive, you’ve been responsible. Between September 14 and October 19 on six successive occasions your drug test has shown that you are negative and you wish to volunteer to become a peer mentor.
“Your record is not particularly bad.”
Last week, Oxford Crown Court heard that police on a routine patrol in Didcot had tried to pull Billingham over in Sir Frank Williams Avenue.
The Renault mounted the kerb and pulled round the police car. In the ensuing chase, he went the wrong-way around roundabouts, overtook in the face of oncoming traffic and sped past a school.
The police officers were so worried about potential risks to other drivers and pedestrians they called off the chase.
Billingham, of Bonners Mead, Benson, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court in November to dangerous driving, driving without a licence or insurance and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.
After banning him from the roads for two years, Recorder Hardy told the dangerous driver: “Get out of my court and don’t come back.”
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