A PROMISING young footballer struggling to cope with being away from home for his career led the police on a 130mph pursuit along three motorways.
And after being forced to stop by a stinger device, Luke Rowe pulled into a service area where he had to be talked down after threatening to jump off a bridge over the M5.
But Rowe, who is said to have spent time with Wolves and Coventry City, escaped being jailed when he appeared at Warwick Crown Court after pleading guilty to dangerous driving.
The 18-year-old, of Wychbury Road, Bartley Green, Birmingham, was sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for 18 months and was ordered to do 120 hours of unpaid work.
Judge Peter Cooke, who banned him from driving for two years, also ordered Rowe to take part in a rehabilitation activity and to pay £425 costs.
Prosecutor James Dunstan said at around 9.20pm on November 10 police saw a white Audi which they had been asked to look out for because Rowe had been reported missing.
The car was first spotted at the junction of the M40 and the A46 near Warwick, where it began heading along the A46 towards Coventry at excessive speed.
An officer followed in an unmarked vehicle as the Audi came off at the Stoneleigh junction before re-joining the dual carriageway heading back towards the M40 at in excess of 120mph.
On the northbound carriageway of the M40 the traffic was fortunately light as Rowe’s speed increased to more than 130mph as he sped past other vehicles, dangerously using the hard shoulder on occasions to do so.
A marked police pursuit vehicle put on its blue lights and siren to try to get Rowe to stop, but he continued to drive in the same way along the M42 before joining the M5.
As he headed north, the Audi’s tyres were deflated by a stinger device which was put down ahead of it near junction 4.
Rowe slowed down and steered into Frankley Services and onto a grass verge where he jumped out of the Audi, leaving it in drive and still moving, said Mr Dunstan.
An officer tried to use his police car to deflect it, but the Audi continued into a Transit van in which two people were sitting, although fortunately they were uninjured.
Meanwhile Rowe had run to the bridge over the motorway where he was threatening to jump but, after an officer had talked to him, changed his mind and ran off before being arrested.
When questioned, Rowe said he was an apprentice footballer and had been team captain, and had found the stress of that extremely difficult.
Spencer Stephens, defending, said: “He was 17 at the time and on £110 a week, but that contract has finished and he’s looking for a new one.”
Asked by the judge about Rowe’s current mental state, Mr Stephens said: “He’s still suffering with anxiety, but is as well as he has been for some time since this incident and for some time before.”
He added Rowe was on prescribed medication and has support which will continue.
Sentencing him, Judge Cooke told Rowe: “I suspect you are an intelligent young man, and that I don’t have to spell out how very dangerous and irresponsible your behaviour was.
“Any driving of a car on the motorway and undertaking other vehicles is bad, but when you’re doing not far off twice the legal speed limit and having half your mind not on the traffic in front, but on the pursuing police cars, it’s a crazy thing to do.
“It creates obvious dangers to other road-users and the police officers, and if you engage in a very protracted pursuit at those speeds and then decamp from the vehicle while it’s still moving, it crosses the custody threshold.
“But you were 17, and you were struggling to cope with your first experience away from home, and I do accept the strong personal mitigation.”
