A TIPPER truck driver who stole his 32-tonne works wagon, almost ran over his boss at the depot and swerved towards a police car has been jailed for six months.

Dramatic police helicopter pictures showed Patrick Denman, 36, driving the wrong way along a dual-carriageway, going through a red light and ended up stuck on a grassed area close to his ex-wife’s home in Cramlington, Northumberland.

Judge Amanda Rippon, sitting at Newcastle Crown Court, found the driver was heading towards his ex’s home in an attempt to intimidate her.

She accepted his personal expression of remorse said in court and heard he was undergoing a nervous breakdown.

She told him: “Mr Denman, there really is only one appropriate sentence for someone who takes an HGV vehicle and drives it on public roads in rush-hour traffic against the traffic towards oncoming vehicles in the way you did.” She jailed him for six months, banned him from driving for 15 months and imposed a five-year restraining order keeping him away from his ex-wife.

Denman, of North Seaton Road, Ashington, previously admitted aggravated vehicle taking and driving dangerously, as well as driving without insurance.

Neil Pallister, prosecuting, said Denman was called back to the Owen Pugh depot in Dudley, North Tyneside at 8am on March 16.

There was a row with his boss Dennis Derrick over his time sheets and Denman, who had missed out on two promotions, quit his job and headed straight to his vehicle.

CCTV from a camera in the truck showed Mr Dennis standing in front of the tipper truck with his hands up, urging Denman to stop, but the driver continued to rev the engine and forced Mr Derrick out of the way.

Two colleagues tried to jump into the cab to force him to stop and they either fell or jumped as it continued through the depot gates, the court heard. No-one was injured.

The court heard he drove for around 12 miles without incident until he was on the A1172, where he was spotted by officers in patrol cars and the force helicopter.

Denman crossed the central reservation, performed a U-turn then headed back on the wrong side of the dual-carriageway towards two stationary patrol cars that had been sent to the incident.

He swerved towards one of them, went left through a red light into a housing estate in Langdale Drive, then immediately on to a grassed area where his truck got stuck.