Terrified motorists in Thirsk had to take evasive action as a speeding car came hurtling towards them the wrong way on a dual carriageway.
As motorists swerved this way and that to avoid a collision with the Vauxhall Insignia, its driver Christopher Nairns hit the accelerator, reaching speeds of up to 90mph against the flow of traffic on the A19 at Knayton, York Crown Court heard.
The banned motorist was fleeing police after they clocked that he was driving a stolen, uninsured car on false plates, said prosecutor Charles Creasey.
Police pursued the vehicle as Nairns, 29, used the central reservation and grass verge to weave in and out of traffic.
The drama began at about 5.30pm on May 17 when police spotted the Vauxhall driving north along the A1(M) and then onto A168 and A19 on false plates. In the front-passenger seat of Nairns’ vehicle was a female friend who was six months pregnant.
When police switched on the blue lights and tried to box the car in at Knayton, Nairns sped away and crossed the central reservation onto the A19’s northbound carriageway in the wrong direction, against a stream of heavy traffic going the other way.
“He accelerated at high speed, weaving between two lanes, using the grass verge and central reservation to avoid oncoming traffic,” said Mr Creasey.
Nairns then did a U-turn onto the correct, southbound carriageway.
As the Vauxhall approached a gap in the central reservation, a traffic officer in another police vehicle further ahead was forced to ram the fleeing car to take it off the road to protect other motorists, some of whom had to take evasive action to avoid a collision with Nairns’ car which ended up on its roof on a grassy embankment beside the road.
Dashcam footage of the incident showed damage to both Nairns’ car and the police vehicle on the embankment.
However, Nairns didn’t give up easily. He got out of the car and made a run for it over three fields before being stopped by officers.
A roadside drug wipe and drink-drive test didn’t show up any traces of alcohol or illicit substances, but when Nairns was taken into police custody he refused to undergo a blood test out of sheer “bloody-mindedness”
He told officers he had bought the vehicle just a few days earlier for £3,000.
Police checks showed it had been stolen from a named man about a month previously, but Nairns told them he didn’t know it had been stolen when he bought it.
Nairns – formerly of Blackhall, County Durham, but currently of no fixed address – was charged with dangerous driving, having no insurance, driving while disqualified, failing to provide a specimen for analysis and handling stolen goods, namely the vehicle he was driving.
He ultimately admitted all matters and appeared for sentence yesterday (July 16) after being recalled to prison to serve the remainder of a five-year jail sentence imposed in 2024 for arson with intent or being reckless as to whether life would be endangered. It means that Nairns won’t be released until 2028.
At the time of his driving antics in Thirsk, he was on prison licence after being released partway through that jail sentence.
Mr Creasey outlined Nairns’ shocking criminal record comprising 52 offences including 19 for theft and kindred and a plethora of motoring offences including dangerous driving, having no insurance, driving while disqualified, making off without payment and rink-driving.
The court heard that Nairns had never held a driving licence. He had been banned from driving two or three times in the past several years and now had six driving-while-disqualified offences on his record, and the same number of no-insurance offences.
Defence barrister Amelia Taylor said that Nairns had been diagnosed with an unstable personality disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and had been sectioned twice in the past.
Judge Simon Hickey told Nairns: “It is unbelievable that you did not hit anybody, but the potential of killing and maiming so many people is staggering.”
He commended the traffic constable who “bravely decided to make the tactical decision to ram your car”.
He added: “The officer had to take that action, otherwise he feared you may (drive in the wrong direction) again. He should be commended for his bravery and tactical nous.”
Mr Hickey said that Nairns’ position was aggravated by his “dreadful” criminal record.
Nairns was jailed for 19 months but it was effectively otiose because he wouldn’t be released from his existing five-year sentence for arson until 2028.
He was given a 57-month motoring ban – equivalent to about four years and nine months – and was told he wouldn’t be allowed back on the roads before taking an extended re-test.
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