Illegal driver jailed for wrong-way chase on Leeds dual carriageway
Court made reference to recent tragedy in which two police officers died
A driver who tried to shake off police by driving the wrong way on a dual carriageway has been locked up.
Alex Owens, who was out of prison on licence at the time, drove at four times the speed limit in built-up areas of Seacroft while already on a ban.
The 24-year-old admitted at Leeds Crown Court to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and failing to stop.
Officers began to chase Owens at around 3.45am on June 13 after he accelerated away from them.
He reached up to 80mph in 20mph and 30mph zones, prosecutor Jonathan Foy told the court, and took sharp turns into streets without slowing.
Owens then got onto the ring road dual carriageway on the wrong side. Police deliberately rammed into him to bring the Renault Megane to a stop.
Both Owens and his passenger were dragged from the car by officers. The chase had lasted around seven minutes.
Owens, of Strathmore Avenue, Harehills, gave a no-comment interview.
Owens has 45 previous convictions for 77 offences. He was jailed in August last year for 33 months for a brutal assault on his girlfriend in Leeds city centre during the Leeds United promotion parade.
He appeared in court for his latest offences over a video link from HMP Leeds, having been recalled to prison until April 2028.
Mitigating, Stephen Smithson raised the recent tragedy in Middlesbrough in which seven people died, including two police officers, after a horror crash on the wrong side of a dual carriageway.
He urged the judge to sentence Owens on his own actions, saying it was “not that kind of driving or the dreadful consequences”.
The judge, Recorder Angus Withington KC described the driving as “utterly irresponsible and dangerous” and added: “It was a matter of wholly good chance that nobody happened to be on those roads that time of the morning.
“Therefore, mercifully, you were not facing even more serious charges.”
He jailed him for 15 months, to run concurrently to his existing sentence, and gave him a new 25-month driving ban.