Dawlish News

The teenage son of a policeman rammed a patrol car in a blind panic after being caught joyriding in his mother's vehicle, a court was told. Learner driver Todd Smith, 18, managed to smash his way out of a cul-de-sac past the police car by narrowly missing an officer who tried to take the ignition keys from his vehicle. But when he abandoned the Vauxhall Astra he was driving and tried to escape on foot, he jumped over a wall and broke his leg in two places, Exeter Crown Court heard. The court was told that police had chased Smith into the cul de sac in Churchill Avenue, Dawlish, after he had failed to stop for a special constable in The Strand. The midnight chase ended when the police car boxed him in, although in ramming the police vehicle Smith caused over £1,400 in damage and £700 damage to his mother's car.