70mph driver jailed after running red light and going wrong way down one-way street

Dylan Coffin panicked after recognising Pc Aaron Pugh who was climbing from an unmarked car that had deliberately tried to block him at Sainsbury's supermarket fuel station in Blackheath.

The 22-year-old prolific offender accelerated from the petrol pump where a friend was filling up the Seat which police had been hunting for several days after it failed to stop when requested, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.

The car hit the open driver's door and left Pc Pugh with a back injury that kept him off work for eight weeks, revealed Mr Nicholas Smith, prosecuting.

The injured officer had dealt with him in relation to another matter just days earlier and Coffin was heard to shout 'It's Pugh' before making the rapid exit.

The Seat Leon was first spotted in Long Lane, Blackheath and seen again minutes later on the garage forecourt of Sainsbury's in nearby Halesowen Street on June 28 last year.

Mr Smith explained: "The defendant, who was behind the wheel, recognised Pc Pugh and drove off leaving the other man looking quite shocked with a petrol pump nozzle in his hand.

The Seat struck the officer a glancing blow while hitting the open driver's door through which Pc Pugh was leaving the vehicle."

The incident caused a pre-existing problem to flare up in a disc in the victim's back, necessitating the eight weeks off work.

Initially Pc Pugh felt a problem in his lower back but this developed to numbness and pain in his feet, the court heard. He was warned surgery could be required but the injury repaired itself.

Coffin insisted that it had never been his intention to hurt the man.

The defendant was driving a VW Passat when finally arrested after a high speed chase that started when he ignored an order to stop after a police patrol spotted him speeding along Sedgley Road West, Tipton on July 3.

Coffin accelerated up to 70mph in a 30 limit, ran a red light and went down a one-way street in the wrong direction.

Other motorists were forced to take evasive action as the Passat headed for Oldbury Ring Road where it squeezed between two buses, damaging both vehicles.

The saloon careered onto the pavement and hit a police car before coming to a standstill in the car park of a supermarket – by coincidence another branch of Sainsbury's – where Coffin was arrested.

Mr Tim Talbot-Webb, defending, said of the latest offence: "He is a man who likes cars even though he doesn't have a proper licence.

"This happened when he was trying to get off the filling station forecourt in something of a panic."

Coffin, from Crusader Close, Oldbury, who had 15 previous convictions involving 27 separate offences, pleaded guilty to assaulting Pc Pugh, driving dangerously in Sainsbury's car park and damaging the driver's door of an unmarked police car.

He was jailed for 15 months and banned from driving for a year by Recorder Ciaran Rankin who told him: "You struck the officer a glancing blow and it is more by luck than judgement that you are not facing a more serious offence."