Man jailed after falsely claiming electric car was out of control on motorway

A motorist who drove at high speeds and falsely claimed his electric Jaguar would not brake in an attempt to avoid paying his car finance has been jailed.

Nathan Owen collided with a police car 31 times as officers tried to stop him after he called emergency services to tell them his vehicle was accelerating and not in his control, a court heard.

During the incident on 6 March 2024, Owen drove at speeds of up to 86mph on the M58, M57 and M62 in Merseyside for about 35 minutes, over a distance of 38 miles.

His lawyer said his actions were "frighteningly stupid", while the judge said the defendant "sought to profit from a lie".

Owen, of Prestatyn, North Wales, was jailed for four years and three months on Monday after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and two counts of fraud in June.

He will also be banned from driving for a period of five years after his release from custody.

Eric Lamb, prosecuting, said the defendant had entered into a finance agreement in September 2023 for the Jaguar I-Pace.

He ran into "financial difficulties" and was in arrears with CA Auto Finance by March the following year with about £5,000 left to pay, Liverpool Crown Court heard.

On the day of the incident, he called loan company Plata to ask if he would be able to borrow more on top of the £3,000 he had already been loaned from it, but was told he could not.

Five minutes later, soon after 2pm, he phoned 999 claiming his car would not brake and he had no control over the vehicle, which he said was accelerating.

Mr Lamb said: "In fact, his car was stationary at the time of that call."

Police attended, and the car, which was being driven up to 86mph, had to be boxed off by emergency service vehicles to keep other road users safe before it came to a stop on the M62 near Warrington, Cheshire.

Read more from Sky News:
Woman who stole £300k from pensioner is jailed
England and Wales see driest July on record

The court heard investigations found there was no fault with the car and motorways had to be shut because of the incident.

Merseyside Police said an "extensive investigation" between the force and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) revealed the car was "functioning correctly and was always in the control of the driver by use of the accelerator pedal".

"Data showed Owen did not press the brakes at any point, despite claiming to do so while on the phone to the 999-call operator.

"The only reason the car was stopped safely was because it ran out of battery charge."

The court was also told Owen was paid hundreds of pounds by two newspapers for his story.

Murray Paul, from JLR, said the company had spent an extra £50m in marketing to try and counter the publicity from the false allegations.

Defending Owen, Daniel Travers, said his client, who had no previous convictions, "had grand ideas and things just went wrong".

(c) Sky News 2026: Man jailed after falsely claiming electric car was out of control on motorway