Dual carriageway police pursuit: Dangerous driving trial in Reading

The incident happened on December 14, 2019 when two officers flagged a silver Vauxhall Zafira parked in Sonning as ‘suspicious’.

When approaching the vehicle, it sped off down Sonning Lane at 60mph, hitting grass verges and heading towards Shepherds Hill roundabout.

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After speeding the wrong way down London Road, the vehicle was stopped and two men fled the car.

The vehicle started rolling back until an officer was able to put on the handbrake.

Emanuele Titiloye, of Whinchat Road, London is on trial at Reading Crown Court charged with one count of dangerous driving.

However, the 32-year-old denies being the driver of the car but rather the passenger.

Prosecuting, Tom Blackburn said: “At half 5 in the afternoon, two officers were on duty in a marked car. They saw a silver Vauxhall Zafira parked up with two men in it and it attracted their attention – they’re police officers, it’s their job to be suspicious.

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“They came back for a closer look and as they did it drove off. They indicated for it to stop with blue flashing lights and activating their sirens but they didn’t stop and it made off and there was a pursuit.

“It drove onto a grass verge at on point and most dangerous it was driven on the wrong side of the dual carriageway because obviously the driver didn’t want to stop.

“The car then came to stop and the two men got out and ran off. The officer chased the driver and caught the man the prosecution say is the driver.

“The man caught and stopped was the defendant, there is no doubt about that.”

PC Tracey Mills, who was driving the police car at the time, said her colleague chased the driver of the car as a ‘priority’ and disagrees with Titiloye’s claims he wasn’t the driver.

She said: “If we were only going to get one of them, the driver was the priority.”

Defending Titiloye, his counsel said a knife was found in the passenger footwell of the car and the defendant was later charged with possession of a bladed article.

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He suggests his client couldn’t be the driver if the knife was found on the passenger side of the vehicle.

The trial, which is expected to conclude by the end of the week, continues.