A SUSPECTED car thief was caught after he tried to escape by running through a village garden and into fields.

The drama began just before noon on Saturday when officers on routine patrol in a marked car in Tadcaster Road, York, spotted a red-coloured Rover car that they thought may have been stolen.

The police, who were part of an armed unit and carrying weapons at the time, tried to pull the car over using their blue lights, but the driver refused and carried on down Sim Balk Lane.

But as he came into Bishopthorpe he lost control, veered across the road and smashed into a lamppost and garden wall, scattering debris in every direction and damaging several cars.

Richard Clough, of Bishopthorpe Road, who owns the wall the car crashed into, said, arrived home 15 minutes after the accident.

He said: “The car was in the middle of the road and there were police everywhere.”

He said one of the men ran through a nearby garden and past the householder as she came out of her back door. The suspect then ran into adjoining fields before being arrested.

Mr Clough said the lamppost was destroyed with debris landing in a garden two doors down.

He said: “I think the car came into the village at high speed, lost control and skidded.”

A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police stressed that at no time had the police officers pursued the Rover.

He added: “It turned out that the car had not been stolen. However, the man was a disqualified driver, was driving without insurance and had recently been released from prison on licence. He remains in police custody at this time.

“The passenger in the car, a 20-year-old man from York, was arrested for breaching bail conditions which prevented him from travelling in the front seat of a car. He was taken into custody for questioning before being released on police bail pending further enquiries.”