A debt-ridden driver who claimed his electric Jaguar would not brake on the motorway in a ‘frighteningly stupid’ attempt to avoid paying his car finance has been jailed for more than four years.
Nathan Owen, 33, collided with a police car 31 times as officers attempted to bring the £70,000 I-PACE to a halt as it travelled on a series of motorways at up to 86mph.
A court on Monday heard that five minutes before Owen called police claiming he could not slow the vehicle, the defendant had called a loan company asking to borrow more on top of the £3,000 he had already loaned from them, and was turned down.
Police dash cam footage showing officers’ attempts to box in and bring the Jaguar to a halt was released after Owen was jailed for 51 months at Liverpool Crown Court, as well as audio of his 999 call in which he claimed ‘my car’s not stopping’ and was ‘stuck at 70mph’.
He was also heard telling a 999 operator he was ‘shaking’ and the car had ‘gone crazy’, during the incident which saw motorways closed.
Owen had been parked at the Orrell interchange at the end of the M58 and was still stationary when he dialled 999.
The examination showed he did not attempt to brake at all during the 35 minutes he was on the phone to police travelling on the M58, M57 and M62 in Merseyside – a distance of 38 miles – on March 6, 2024.
The vehicle only came to a stop on the M62 near Warrington, Cheshire, when it ran out of battery charge – as it slowed to a halt the dash cam footage showed its brake lights illuminate.
Nathan Owen was in arrears with a finance company and ‘fabricated the events in order to enable him to get rid of the vehicle’
Police attempt to stop the car by pulling in front. The court heard Owen hit the patrol car 31 times
Owen’s car is seen in front on the busy road before he was stopped
Owen can be seen being escorted from his vehicle by police after it finally stopped
Investigations found there was no fault with the car, the court heard.
Owen was arrested on March 13, 2024, but denied fabricating the incident for financial gain – maintaining his story that the vehicle was faulty.
But an initial delve into his finances showed a high level of personal debt and multiple missed payments on the vehicle finance.
Text messages recovered from his mobile phone also showed him discussing how to get rid of the vehicle – including getting the car written off – in the months before the reported incident.
Eric Lamb, prosecuting, said Owen, of Prestatyn, North Wales, had entered into a finance agreement in September 2023 for the Jaguar I-Pace.
He ran into ‘financial difficulties’ and was in arrears with CA Auto Finance by March the following year with about £5,000 left to pay, the court heard.
Mr Lamb said: ‘He had fabricated the events in order to enable him to get rid of the vehicle.
‘He had full control of the vehicle and with full control of the vehicle he travelled at excessive and extreme speeds.’
The brake lights illuminate as the car slowed to a halt in the outside lane
Owen was arrested by Merseyside Police following the incident in March 2024
Sentencing him, Judge Ian Unsworth KC told Owen: ‘You set in train a course of conduct which caused a significant police traffic operation to be deployed, undoubted alarm to the public and very substantial loss and disruption to others.’
The judge said police officers placed themselves in danger because they believed they were dealing with a genuine emergency.
Addressing Owen, he added: ‘You, meanwhile, sought to profit from a lie.’
The court heard Owen contacted the finance company 40 minutes after the incident.
In a statement, Murray Paul, from Jaguar Land Rover UK, said the firm had spent an extra £50 million in marketing to try and counter the publicity from the false allegations, which they said generated 180 pieces of adverse media coverage.
Daniel Travers, defending, said Owen’s actions were ‘frighteningly stupid’.
He said Owen, who had no previous convictions and came from a ‘successful, stable family’, had been described by his father as a Walter Mitty character who ‘lives in a fantasy world’.
He added: ‘He had grand ideas and things just went wrong.’
Owen pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and two counts of fraud in June.
He was banned from driving for a period of five years after his release from custody.
Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Constable Michael Doyle said: ‘It was clear from our investigations that he was in full control of his vehicle throughout the duration of the incident.
‘By his own admission there were workers on the hard shoulder of the motorway and he clearly put them and other road users in danger with his reckless actions.’
A charge of causing a public nuisance was ordered to lie on the file.
