A DRUG driver has been jailed after he drove at 76 mph and rammed a police car in an attempt to evade capture.

Aron Pollard was driving a friend’s high powered BMW X3 when police recognised him as a banned driver and tried to stop him at Bickleigh, near Tiverton.

Officers laid a stinger device across the road but Pollard spotted it and pulled up just in front of it before reversing back towards a pursuing police car.

He was filmed on police bodycam as the police car forced him over the stinger, deflating all four wheels. The crew had to wait for the device to be retracted before they resumed the chase.

Pollard them drove at speeds of up to 76 mph in a 60 mph limit and overtook on blind corners before ramming a police car which tried to overtake him and box him in.

The police succeeded in bumping the BMW off the road and into a tree before jumping out to arrest Pollard and his passenger before they could flee.

Pollard had time to leap from the driver’s seat into the back of the car and he claimed to be a passenger, rather than the driver.

He has never held a driving licence and has three previous convictions for driving while disqualified and one for cannabis dealing.

Pollard (29), of Westexe South, Tiverton, denied dangerous driving and driving while disqualified but was found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court in August. He later admitted drug driving, failing to stop, and having no insurance.

He was jailed for 18 months and banned from driving for four years after his release and ordered to take an extended test by Recorder Mr Kevin de Haan, KC.

He told him: “This was a very bad piece of dangerous driving. You drove in an appalling fashion over a period of time. It was not just a single act caused by an error of judgment. This was deliberate dangerous driving intended to evade capture by the police.

“You showed a deliberate disregard for the safety of others. The police were put at risk by you driving at excessive speed at a time when you had driven over a stinger which had punctured all four tyres.

“You were being pursued but did not stop and continued to drive when you had a level of cannabis in your blood. Even driving normally with cannabis in your blood is very serious but driving as you did is very serious indeed.”

Miss Felicity Payne, prosecuting, said Pollard was seen driving a BMW with the personalised plate C8GET that belonged to his friend Brian Davey in Thorverton on May 8 last year.

The police followed the car because Davey was also a disqualified driver but then recognised Pollard behind the wheel.

His driving became dangerous after the car was pushed over the stinger and he tried to run the overtaking police car off the road.

The police car sustained damage that cost £4,649 to repair. Pollard pleaded not guilty on the basis he was not the driver. He has never passed a test or held a valid licence.

Mr Simon Burns, defending, said Pollard has a steady job at a driveway company and his partner and their five dependent children would be left destitute if he was sent to jail.

He said there had not been grossly excessive speed and nobody had been injured. He did not lose control of the BMW because it was fitted with run-flat tyres.