AN ARMY mechanic claimed the car he was driving was stolen after he led police on a dangerous pursuit through rural Wiltshire in the early hours of the morning.

Abingdon man Evelcious Lacorbiniere reached speeds of 100 miles per hour during the chase, straddling lanes and veering onto the opposite side of the road.

After he got away, he phoned police to say that his car had been stolen whilst he stopped to go to the toilet at the side of the road, also making a false statement to the military police.

But the court heard that the defendant, a former police officer in St Lucia, is of good character and that this offence will result in the loss of his career.

Nevertheless, he was jailed for eight months and banned from driving.

Lacorbiniere was driving along London Road in Devizes just before 1.30am on January 3 when police noticed his windscreen was misted up on the inside.

“As the vehicle conducted a turn, it was smooth and steady, however the wheel came within a few centimetres of the kerb,” prosecutor Ed Wylde added.

The officers intended to pull the Vauxhall Astra over to talk to the driver about this, but when they turned around to follow the vehicle, it started accelerating away.

“As the vehicle approached the Hopton roundabout, it straddled the lanes, clearly taking the roundabout at excess speed,” Mr Wylde told Swindon Crown Court on Friday.

During the pursuit, the police car was travelling at 60-70mph in a 40 zone, 90mph on a dual carriageway and reached speeds of 100mph.

As Lacorbiniere reached Beckhampton and approached a blind crest, he veered across onto the oncoming carriageway and “suddenly carried out an emergency stop”, Mr Wylde continued.

The 30-year-old ran through brambles to escape and the car began to roll back down the hill, which a police officer had to jump through the open door to stop.

He ran to a friend’s house, where he was driven back to his barracks at MOD Lyneham by a friend. He told them: “I’m in trouble but don’t want to talk about it.”

The next day, he reported his vehicle as stolen, saying he had stopped to go to the toilet at the side of the road in the Tidworth area, and he was forced to walk 30 miles home. He followed it up with a false statement to the military police.

Defending, Matthew Scott said that he had an argument with his girlfriend which “affected his state of mind”, and was “panicked” to see the police following him.

“He put his foot down, he accepts what he did was completely out of character and completely wrong, certainly dangerous.

“He got out of the car and his first thought was what he had done was something that would lose him his army career. Had he done the sensible thing and handed himself into the police, it may be that he could retain that career.

“In trying to save his career, albeit dishonestly, he has wrecked his career.”

The court also heard that the country had invested a “great deal of money in training” Lacorbiniere, now of Dalton Barracks in Abingdon, who came to the UK having previously served as a police officer in St Lucia.

Sentencing, Judge James Townsend said that Lacorbiniere’s driving created “a significant risk for other road users had they been around, although I bear in mind this was in the early hours of the morning”.

He said the underlying crime that he was trying to avoid was “serious” because it carried a prison sentence, but that his efforts to evade justice was not “the most sophisticated”.

Judge Townsend jailed Lacorbiniere for four months for dangerous driving, and four months for perverting the course of justice, which will be served consecutively, after he pleaded guilty to both offences.

Additionally, he will be banned from driving for 16 months, and must take an extended retest should he wish to drive again.

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