Raiders left a trail of damaged police and farmers' vehicles in their wake as they targeted farms near Malton, York Crown Court heard. 

Brooke Morrison, prosecuting, told York Crown Court the gang of three first broke into a property near Amotherby and made off with a quad bike among other items. After they had gone, the farmer and his son set off in another vehicle to try and find them.

They spotted the gang in a stolen Ford Fiesta and tried to block their way with their own car, but the gang rammed them, crashed into a wooden fence, abandoned their vehicle and ran off.

At 5.15am they were in Kirby Misperton, where they broke into a works van and stole it and the valuable tools in it. They used it to go to Flamingoland where they rammed a set of gates to get into the property and into a nearby farm. There they ransacked a storage unit before attaching a chipper to the back of the van and driving off with more stolen tools.

The police officer spotted them and followed them to a junction with the A169 where the chipper became detached and the van stopped.

He went over to tell them to get out and tried to get the keys from the van’s ignition, but as his arm was inside the van, Dunn drove off.

The police officer returned to his car with a scrape along his arm, and followed, but was twice rammed.

A second police vehicle that joined the pursuit was also rammed before the van drove off through fields and escaped.

The gang abandoned the van in a field and made their way to another farm where they stole a BMW. The injured police officer spotted the BMW as they drove away from the farm and resumed the pursuit.

Firearms police joined in, but their car was rammed and so badly damaged it couldn’t continue. The other cars did, but again the gang got away, using dust thrown up by a newly tarmacked road.

Member of the public alerted police that the BMW had crashed in Sycamore Close, Slingsby and directed them to where Connor was hiding under a bush. A police hunt located Dunn and Setchell at the village hall.