A POLICEWOMAN bravely clung on to the steering wheel of a van as an uninsured driver tried to drive away from a lay-by, a court heard.

The constable was dragged along a track, hanging from the driver’s side of the box van, as she attempted to remove the keys from the ignition, while a colleague helplessly looked on.

She eventually had to release her grip on the steering wheel and fell to the ground, as the van was driven away, colliding with her parked police car on the way.

Durham Crown Court heard that the officer suffered a deeply grazed knee and other abrasions to her left leg, plus a badly swollen hand.

Shaun Dryden, prosecuting, said the incident took place while the two female officers were on routine patrol on a Saturday morning, September 5, in Brandon, near Durham.

They were flagged down by a man who asked them to check a suspicious van parked on his land, in nearby Pit House Lane.

As they approached, they formed the impression someone may be sleeping in the rear of the Fiat van, which was bearing a Vauxhall Corsa car registration.

As the checks were being made a male figure, defendant James Alan Carruthers, was seen climbing into the driver’s seat.

The officers rushed forward, telling him to remain in situ as there was a discrepancy with the number plate.

Carruthers put the keys into the ignition and a struggle took place as both officers tried to restrain and handcuff him, before he drove away.

The court heard Carruthers was at large after a bench warrant was issued for his arrest for failing to attend court a month earlier.

Mr Dryden said he handed himself in, however, at a police station two days later and admitted having fled, “in panic”.

The 24-year-old, of High Street, West Cornforth, admitted dangerous driving, no insurance and two counts of obstructing a police officer.

He was previously found ‘guilty’, in his absence, of three counts of fraud and one of theft, over attempts to remove up to £8,320 from the bank account of a family friend, staying at his parents’ home.

Maria Temkow, mitigating, said he had been suffering depression, and, following the incident involving the police women, he had to be talked down from a bridge by his sister, before handing himself in.

Miss Temkow described his bid to flee the officers as, “a moment of madness”, as he was behaving “irrationally”.

Jailing him for 16 months, Judge Simon Hickey refused defence requests to suspend the sentence, adding that anyone ignoring police requests to stop in a vehicle on the roads of County Durham would be jailed.

Carruthers was also banned from driving for two years, starting at the point of his release from prison.