A dangerous driver who dialled 999 to ask police to stop following him while they were pursuing him for nearly an hour has been jailed. Bruce Dewey, 36, admitted to dangerous driving, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence and driving without third-party insurance at Chichester Crown Court in August. He has now been sentenced to 15 months following the chase during rush hour.

Dewey was driving a blue Honda Legend in Tarring Road on 22 February when he was spotted by police officers who knew him to only have a provisional licence. He them managed to lose the pursuing police vehicles for a short time after he sped away, before later being spotted again on Exmoor Drive.

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Dewey then continued to weave in and out of traffic, dodged stop sticks used to burst his tyres and drove down the wrong side of the road as he attempted to escape from police along Salvington Road and then the A24, A283 and A27.

During this time, a police vehicle was damaged to the extent that it was put out of action before Dewey was eventually forced off the road in a tactical stop on the A27 at Sompting, damaging two more police cars in the process.

Dewey was jailed for 15 months, disqualified from driving for three years with a requirement to take an extended retest and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £100 ($132). No separate penalties were imposed in respect of the licence and insurance offences.

PC Peter De Silvo, from Surrey and Sussex Roads Policing Unit, said: "Thankfully, nobody was injured in this incident, which was not conducted at high speed, but Dewey's actions in trying to avoid police through a busy Monday evening rush hour could have had disastrous consequences.

"For nearly 50 minutes he refused to stop for police units, avoided stop sticks deployed to try and burst his tyres and at one point called 999 and asked us to stop following him."

Bruce Dewey
Bruce Dewey has now been jailed for 15 months following the chase Sussex Police