Stolen-car driver reached 117mph on Oulton A-road as four police cars and helicopter joined pursuit

The silver VW Passat had been reported stolen from an address in South Yorkshire and was bearing false plates when driver Dylan Finney spotted a police car behind him on Wakefield Road near Oulton Hall Hotel at around 3pm on April 5 last year.

He turned off along Methley Lane and accelerated to the dangerous speed as the police illuminated their lights. Overtaking cars he reached 117mph as he weaved in and out of traffic.

Prosecutor Bashir Ahmed told Leeds Crown Court that at one point he tried to avoid two cyclists and almost hit a car head-on.

Video of the two-minute chase was played to the court and showed the police car struggling to keep up with the Passat. Others officers and the helicopter were scrambled to help in the pursuit.

Finney, 26, eventually came to a dead end on Church Side and he fled the car on foot, but was found hiding a short time later. He was found to be over the drug-drive limit for cannabis and cocaine.

Finney, of Grays Road, Carlton, near Barnsley, admitted dangerous driving and two counts of being over the drug-drive limit.

He has five previous convictions for 10 offences, including driving matters and handling stolen goods. He was on suspended sentences during his latest offences.

A stand-down report from probation found that he had amassed a £1,200 debt with dealers because of his cocaine and cannabis habit and was put to work transporting stolen vehicles for them.

Mitigating, James Holding said: “He accept he has severe problems with two drugs. He was told the drive that vehicle and had little option but to comply with that. It’s clear he has been taken advantage of.”

The judge, Recorder Olivia Checa-Dover said: “You narrowly missed a member of the public in oncoming traffic. When you turned off that road you came to an abrupt stop because you had nowhere else to go. It’s by luck alone that nobody was seriously hurt.

She jailed him for 14 months in total, activating part of his previous sentences as part of the total length, and banned him from driving for 25 months.