Colchester: Knife seized and arrest following pursuit

Our roads policing officers ensured off-road driving and knee-deep mud wouldn’t get in the way of arresting a suspect and seizing a knife.

Sergeant Paul Gosling, of our Roads Policing Unit, together with Special Sergeant Amanda Taylor, engaged in a pursuit with an Audi TT in Colchester.

The vehicle had failed to stop in Northern Approach Road at around 1.50am on Monday 31 March.

Across a near 10 minute pursuit, the vehicle proceeded to ignore multiple red lights as it reached speeds of up to 70mph in 30mph and 40mph zones.

The officers followed at a safe distance and provided a running commentary to our control room, ensuring the suspect did not escape.

The vehicle exited onto farmland in Boxted, failing to escape our officers and becoming bogged down.

The officers wasted no time in wading through the mud to detain the driver.

A knife was recovered.

A man aged in his 30s, from Walton, remains in custody for questioning on suspicion of dangerous driving, failing to stop when directed, drug driving and possession of a knife in a public place.

'This is business as usual'

Adam Pipe, head of our Roads Policing Unit, said:

“This is the kind of work my officers are engaged in every day – patrolling our county’s roads to make arrests and keep the public safe.
“This often results in the removal of knives and other weapons from the streets of Essex.
“These officers are professionals who undergo extensive training in response driving.
“They patrol all the county’s roads, whether they are the strategic road networks or the lesser used, more rural roads, no matter the location or the speed limit.
“It’s our job to ensure that each road is safe to be used and they’re not used by those offenders who think that they can move about Essex undetected, because they can’t.”

Help us reduce road collisions and casualties in Essex and make our roads even safer. Report instances of poor and dangerous driving through Safer Essex Roads Partnership's Extra Eyes initiative.

More than ever, irresponsible, dangerous and illegal road behaviour is being recorded by road users. Through Extra Eyes this footage can be sent to, and reviewed by, an investigator within Road Policing at Essex Police.

Find out how by visiting Safer Essex Roads Partnership website.