A JUDGE has asked for a psychiatric report on a Selby man who ran amok on the A19 while driving an 18-ton mechanical digger.

Ian Leaper yesterday pleaded guilty at York Crown Court to aggravated vehicle taking without the owner's consent.

He also admitted three charges of criminal damage, being reckless as to whether lives were endangered.

Several police officers were injured during the incident on March 23 this year on the A19, near the Hazlewood food factory at Barlby.

It was revealed today that one of the officers, PC Karen Taylor, is still off work more than four months after the incident.

Selby police chief, Inspector Paul Bilton, said that PC Taylor was still receiving treatment for whiplash injuries to her neck and back.

The officers were in two police vans and a police Peugeot 306.

They tried to stop the giant excavator and several of them ended up in York Hospital after one van was pushed into a field and the second one was overturned and partially crushed.

A police helicopter joined the chase, along with armed officers and dog handlers.

Witnesses said that Leaper, who was wearing a blonde wig, dumped the excavator in a field and ran into a nearby house.

After a two-hour stand-off, negotiators persuaded Leaper to leave the house, where he was bundled to the ground and arrested by officers wearing body armour and holding shields.

Leaper, a 35-year-old single man, of George Terrace, Barlby, was remanded in custody yesterday while a psychiatric report was prepared.

The court heard that although he had a history of mental illness, he was deemed fit to plead and is expected to be sentenced in about six weeks' time.

Updated: 12:51 Saturday, August 02, 2003