Police car chase teen spared detention term

COURT: 17-year-old raced through Dundee gardens at 80mph to evade capture

A teenager who led police on an 80mph chase through residential streets – at one point through the gardens of two blocks of flats in a bid to evade capture – was spared detention yesterday.

The 17-year-old – who cannot be named for legal reasons – was told he could have killed people during what a sheriff described as the “worst case of dangerous driving I’ve ever dealt with”.

The uninsured teen set off with friends in his car but quickly came to the attention of police who signalled him to pull over.

But instead he launched into a threemile high-speed chase that saw him race at up to 80mph on narrow streets lined with parked cars and at one point driving over grass between and round blocks of flats to get away.

Fiscal depute Marie Irvine told Dundee Sheriff Court the teenager was spotted by police at 10.20pm who were on mobile patrol in Dundee’s Pitkerro Road.

She said the lad was driving at around 45mph in a 30mph street and they attempted to make ground on him, only for him to turn into another street at speed.

That sparked an initial 60mph chase with the boy driving down the middle of the road.

Miss Irvine said: “At the junction with Happyhillock Road the accused crossed into the opposing carriageway, failing to slow down and give way at the junction, continued eastwards on Happyhillock Road at excessive speed.”

She said when the car reached the roundabout at Douglas Road, the accused drove round it the wrong way, causing two other cars to take avoiding action and carried on into Balunie Drive.

The teen then did a loop through various streets in Douglas before re-entering Happyhillock Road, mounting the pavement beside two blocks of residential flats and driving between them over an area of grass, round the rear of the blocks and re-entering Happyhillock Road at around 60mph.

Miss Irvine said the car appeared to be unstable at this point and the rear of the vehicle was sliding from side to side.

The 17-year-old, of Dundee, pleaded guilty to charges of driving without insurance and dangerous driving committed on various streets in Dundee on December 3 2017.

Sheriff John Rafferty imposed a community payback order with 12 months’ supervision and a restriction of liberty order confining the boy to his home from 8pm til 6am every day for six months on an electronic tag.

The teenager was also banned from driving for four years.

The sheriff said: “You put your life at risk and more importantly you put members of the public’s lives at risk. You could have killed people.”