A drug driver who sped the wrong way on one of the UK's busiest roads before pulling a dangerous handbrake turn has been jailed. Thomas Garfitt, 29, was captured in hair-raising footage pulling off the dangerous manoeuvre on the A1
In the footage he is seen reaching speeds of 125mph during a 27-minute police chase. He's captured driving through red lights and narrowly avoiding a crash as he weaves in and out of traffic and cuts up motorists at roundabouts at high speed.
In footage taken by a police helicopter, he speeds up the hard shoulder into oncoming traffic on the A1 in South Yorkshire. A radio handler audibly gaps as he suddenly pulls the U-turn onto the main carriageway, narrowly missing traffic coming the opposite way.
Sheffield Crown Court heard it was a ‘minor miracle’ Garfitt’s driving had not resulted in ‘serious injury or harm'. The pursuit started at 8pm on April 25 when Garfitt suddenly took off from suspicious officers who had stopped his car in Sheffield, South Yorks.
And after speeding through inner city roads, he reached the M1 motorway, where he weaved in and out of traffic while going almost twice the speed limit. Six police vehicles and a helicopter were pursuing Garfitt when he headed the wrong way down the A1 dual carriageway, driving along the road’s hard shoulder.
He then went on to pull off an audacious hand-break turn in the middle of the road, after spotting a gap in the traffic, and returned the way he had just gone. The lengthy chase ended when Garfitt eventually stopped his car and when police tested him, they found he was positive for cocaine.
Garfitt was jailed for 20 months at a hearing on May 17 at Sheffield Crown Court and banned from driving for four years and ten months. Speaking after his sentencing, Acting Sergeant Joe Binley from South Yorkshire Police said he was pleased that the dangerous driver had been sent to prison.
He said: “We often find that drivers who fail to stop for us, usually as a routine stop are linked to greater criminality and will go to extreme lengths to avoid speaking to us. We want drivers like Garfitt who are willing to pose such a risk off our roads, and I am pleased he has been sentenced to time in prison for his actions.”
“Throughout a pursuit we are continuously monitoring the risks to the public, the risk to ourselves and the risk to the suspect.”
