Thursday, September 18, 2008 A banned driver ran into a police sergeant, knocking him over the car bonnet as he tried to escape arrest, a court heard.
Ross Sylvester Sterland, who was sentenced to 18 months detention, claimed he drove off in a panic as the officer stood directly in front of the car with his arms out, signalling for him to stop.
The 20-year-old mounted a pavement to drive between a police car and a wall in a crowded part of the Churchgate area of the city centre, in the early hours of the morning.
It caused Sergeant Garry Johnson to receive a glancing blow from the car and sent him over the bonnet.
Apart from a bruise, he was unharmed.
Sterland (20) of Tudor Road, Black Friars, then turned the wrong way into a congested one-way road, Butt Close Street, causing a collision, damaging three other vehicles.
He was arrested at the scene and gave false details to the police. However, he was correctly identified by an officer who knew him at the police station, said Meena Evans, prosecuting, at Leicester Crown Court.
CCTV footage of the defendant driving out of the Matalan Car Park at 3.15 am, off Gravel Street, on May 30, was shown in court.
The camera also captured the impact with the police sergeant seconds later.
The film showed another officer with the car door open, trying to stop the vehicle, as it collided with his colleague.
Sterland admitted driving a VW Golf dangerously, driving when disqualified and common assault upon the sergeant.
Mrs Evans said that Johnson was on licence at the time from a 15-month custodial sentence imposed last October for an earlier dangerous driving incident, when he was also banned from driving for two years.
He was released in January but his licence was revoked and he was returned to custody after the dangerous driving incident involving the sergeant.
Faye Mellor, defending, said: "The incident lasted less than 15 seconds from where he starts to drive off to where he's detained.
"He offers an apology to the officer and is thankful he didn't suffer any serious injury at all.
"He was driving his friend's car because he was the sober one, although he knew he was disqualified and shouldn't have been behind the wheel.
"He tried to drive around the officer. It wasn't intentional."
Miss Mellor said he pleaded guilty on the basis he panicked and acted recklessly, not deliberately.
Recorder Michael Fowler told Sterland he had "a bad record" for driving offences.
He added: "It's said you expressed remorse from the outset.
"But you didn't, because you gave the police a false name, although you haven't been charged with perverting the course of justice.
"In the course of this incident you came into contact with Sergeant Johnson.
"It's fortunate he went over the bonnet rather than under the wheels."
