A MERCEDES driver who was fleeing police reached 140mph on the M40 before crashing into an island near Warwick.
No-one was injured or killed as Adrian Osiecki covered 21 miles in just 12 minutes at an average speed of 105mph, a judge at Warwick Crown Court has heard.
The 30-year-old of Aldbourne Road, Radford, Coventry, was jailed for 18 months and banned from driving for 40 months after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, driving with cannabis in his system and having no licence, or insurance.
Police pursued the driver after a camera near Oxford highlighted the Mercedes C200 because its number plates actually related to a Vauxhall.
A camera in the police car showed him overtaking another car which was already in the outside lane by squeezing between it and the central barrier.
Driving at up to double the legal speed limit, Osiecki then weaved between other traffic, including HGVs, and undertook a stream of traffic by driving along the hard shoulder.
He left the motorway at junction 15, speeding up the slip-road and smashing into a barrier on the busy Longbridge island, losing a front wheel and coming to rest across two lanes.
Osiecki leapt from the wrecked car and ran into the wooded area in the centre of the island, but was caught and found to have almost double the legal limit of cannabis in his system.
Osiecki, who had previous convictions for offences including careless driving and driving without a licence or insurance, accepted his driving had been dangerous, and that he had smoked a spliff two hours before getting into the car.
Philip Vollans, defending, said: “We have an individual who panicked, who indicated quite openly in interview he was not entirely sure why he behaved as he did.
“He had purchased the car that day in order to try to obtain work as a caravan repairer, which was a job he had undertaken previously.”
Mr Vollans said during the pandemic, Osiecki had been unable to find a job, so had been seeking to become self-employed, for which he bought the car.
Since the offence he has become a father, and although he and the mother have separated, he provides financial support to her and the baby, he added.
Jailing Osiecki, Judge Anthony Potter said it was ‘remarkable’ he did not cause someone serious injury.
He added: “The traffic was far from light. There was traffic in all three lanes when you sought to overtake a vehicle already in the fast lane by forcing your way at 120mph between that vehicle and the central barrier.
“It is remarkable that you did not cause a pile-up at that stage, and I have seen other manoeuvres showing a complete disregard for the health and well-being of other road-users.
“You were pursued for 21 miles in the space of just 12 minutes, which means your average speed was 105mph, and at times you reached twice the legal motorway speed limit.
“The nature of the danger you posed must have been brought home to you when you came off at probably one of the busiest junctions on the M40 where your handling of the car was so inept that you crashed into the barriers.
“The only possible way I can punish you is by making this an immediate sentence.”
