A WOODLEY driver has been jailed after attempting to ‘ram’ into a police car on the A14 while drunk.

Mitchell Dickenson, 31, has been jailed for 20 months and disqualified from driving for 26 months for the incident which happened on November 24 last year.

Ipswich Crown Court heard that police were called by a member of the public who reported that a Land Rover Freelander was being driven ‘erratically’ on the A14 eastbound near Woolpit.

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Response officers were dispatched and located the vehicle approximately 10 minutes later near junction 50 at Stowmarket where it appeared to be stationary with its hazard lights on.

It then began to pick up speed but was indicating left as if to pull over to the nearside, so the police car – which was marked and had its blue lights illuminated – pulled alongside the Land Rover, at which point Dickenson swerved his vehicle towards it in an apparent attempt to ‘ram’ the police car.

A second attempt was made to pull over Dickenson but swerved towards them again and tried to force the police car into the central reservation.

At this point Dickenson was driving at speeds between 60mph and 100mph, ‘weaving’ across the road and one point slammed on the brakes causing the police car to make an emergency stop.

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As they were passing the off-slip at the Claydon turning, Dickenson cut across the chevrons at the last second and went over rough ground which caused the vehicle to become airborne as it went over a grass bank.

On returning back to the Claydon junction, the officers – who had now been joined by other colleagues – found that Dickenson had crashed and overturned the car on the roundabout and was standing beside it with cuts to his face and head.

Dickenson was then arrested for dangerous driving and subsequently failed a roadside breath test, providing a sample of 101 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, which is almost three times the legal limit. He then refused to provide a saliva sample for a roadside drugs test.

He was then transported to Ipswich Hospital and on the journey he was verbally abusive towards the police officer and paramedics.

On arrival at hospital, he kicked out at the police officer as he was trying to secure Dickenson to the trolley, making contact with the back of the officer’s head.

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Sergeant George Laflin, of the roads and armed policing team, said: “Dickenson’s actions on the night in question were extremely reckless and dangerous and it is incredibly fortunate that nobody was seriously harmed as a result.”