Leon Hendry guilty of police chase through Acomb and Foxwood

Leon Hendry, 30, claimed he wasn’t at the wheel of his father’s Audi as it tried to escape from police through Acomb and Foxwood.

He agreed with police officer Richard Harrison that he had got out of the driver’s door after the car crashed, but claimed the real driver had got out of the passenger door.

The jury took under half an hour to convict him unanimously of dangerous driving.

Hendry, of Park Grove, The Groves, had denied the charge.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, adjourned sentence until September 14 while probation officers prepare a report on him, and told him: “I am granting you bail because it will give you the chance to get your affairs in order.

“You had better bring your bag.“

He told the jury: “This was a police chase, which I always regard as exceptionally serious. It will be prison.”

Sgt Harrison told the jury he was in a marked police car on November 11 at 1.50am on Gale Lane near Tudor Road.

He saw a car come towards him and turn into Cornlands Road in what he considered to be an “evasive” manoeuvre.

So he turned on his blue lights to get it to stop and followed it.

Tennent Road, Acomb (Image: Google Street View)

The three-door Audi twice drove round a circuit of Lown Hill, Tennent Road and Cornlands Road at between 50mph and 70mph. The speed limit there is 30mph and the roads had parked cars on them, said Sgt Harrison.

The Audi drove along St Stephen’s Road, Thoresby Road, Cornlands Road and Askham Lane where it went through the 20mph zone outside Westfield School at 80mph to 90mph.

The 20 mph zone on Askham Lane (Image: Google Street View)

It went along Front Street to the roundabout outside Morrison’s and back again, then down Gale Lane, Cornlands Road, St Stephen’s Road and Gale Lane to Foxwood Lane.

It was doing about 50mph as it tried to turn right at Foxwood shops and crashed into some conifers, said Sgt Harrison. He saw two people get out of the car and run off, one from the driver’s door, who was arrested later, and one from the passenger door.

Giving evidence, Hendry claimed that he had taken cocaine before walking to a shop to buy some alcohol.

He alleged the Audi had pulled alongside him, with a friend in the passenger seat and a stranger driving, and he had got in and “slumped” in the back seat.

He claimed he had told the driver to slow down during the police chase.

When the car crashed, he claimed someone had shouted “run, run, run”.

His friend had got out of the passenger door, followed by the stranger who had clambered over the central console.

He himself had then clambered over from the back and gone out the driver’s door, he claimed.

He had run off through panic and adrenaline.