Jailed: Driver who sped at 110mph wrong way on motorway
Disqualified motorist crashed after chase:
James Honey, 25, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance and failing to stop after an accident
ADISQUALIFIED driver who was chased the WRONG WAY down a motorway at 110mph before crashing into a police car has been jailed.
James Honey, from Accrington, was spotted by police on the M6 in Cumbria using a stolen Seat Leon car at around 1.30am on July 29 this year, a court heard.
When officers tried to stop the 25-year-old he ‘panicked’ and fled down the M6 towards Lancashire at speeds reaching 100mph. Craig MacGregor, prosecuting, told Preston Crown Court how officers tried to stop Honey using stinger devices, however he avoided them by turning on to the M55 towards Blackpool.
The court heard that Honey then ‘very quickly’ performed a U-turn and travelled back along the M55 in the WRONG direction.
He then turned back onto the M6 and again drove the wrong way down the northbound carriageway reaching speeds of 110mph.
Mr McGregor said a ‘significant number’ of police vehicles and the force helicopter were called to the area and officers stopped traffic heading northbound at Junction 31 near Preston using a rolling roadblock.
When Honey approached the roadblock he was seen ‘waving from side to side’ on the motorway before trying to escape down the hard shoulder.
However his efforts were thwarted by ‘courageous and diligent’ police officer PC Matthew Burn who cut across his path and ‘rammed’ into his car.
The court heard that Honey tried to flee the scene and hide in a bush but was tackled to the ground by officers and ruptured his tendons and ligaments.
Mr MacGregor told the court that Honey tried to blame a female passenger in the car and denied being the driver.
He told officers: “I wasn’t driving. The driver is still down there.”
Honey, of Ascot Way, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance, failing to stop after an accident and all while in beach of a suspended prison sentence.
He was jailed for 23 months, disqualified from driving for five years and ordered to take an extended re-test.
The Observer reported in October last year how Honey was given a suspended jail sentence for a ‘road rage’ incident where he threatened two nurses with a baseball bat after a ‘near miss’ at a traffic light.