High Speed Chase As Suspects With Drugs Worth GBP 500,000 Try To Lose Cops Driving Down Hard Shoulder
This is the moment two drug dealers carrying cocaine unwittingly make themselves a police target by driving down the hard shoulder to avoid traffic before a high-speed chase ensues.
An officer inside the police car can be heard asking “really?” as the men pass them on the hard shoulder of the motorway, apparently to avoid queuing, before the officers pursue them.
A high-speed chase then ensues, with the pair speeding off once they realise the police are following them.
Footage taken from the West Midlands Police car shows how the men top speeds of 100 mph, and they can even be seen driving at 90 mph in a 30-mph residential zone.
The men are also seen veering onto the wrong side of the road, driving on the central reservation and over grass, and jumping several red lights in their attempt to lose the pursuing officers.
At one point, one of the men is seen getting out of the car with a rucksack and running away before his accomplice drives on during the incident that took place in Walsall on 5th November last year.
However, the driver eventually decides to give up and indicates that he is going to pull over. The officers then get out of the police car and order him to get on the ground.
The officers subsequently realised why the pair failed to pull over and were so desperate to lose them.
The man who fled the vehicle was arrested while he tried to hail a taxi nearby and his rucksack was found in a bush.
The officers found it contained five one-kilogramme (2.2 lb) slabs of cocaine of high purity, valued at around GBP 500,000.
The man has been named as Dean Stone, 40, and his accomplice, who was driving the BMW i8 worth over GBP 100,000, has been identified as 39-year-old Simon Pagett.
The two men are friends and both hail from Walsall. They subsequently pleaded guilty to possessing drugs with intent to supply.
Pagett also admitted to dangerous driving, leading to him being sentenced to seven years in prison at Birmingham Crown Court on 27th May. Stone received six years.
According to Detective Constable Mandy Dorrington, who was involved in the investigation, Pagett tried to claim his wealth came from “dog breeding, cutting trees and vehicle recovery businesses”.
Officers are now investigating the pair’s finances and will seize any assets or cash the men cannot prove they accrued legally.