Quickly exit this site by pressing the Escape key Leave this site
We use some essential cookies to make our website work. We’d like to set additional cookies so we can remember your preferences and understand how you use our site.
You can manage your preferences and cookie settings at any time by clicking on “Customise Cookies” below. For more information on how we use cookies, please see our Cookies notice.
Your cookie preferences have been saved. You can update your cookie settings at any time on the cookies page.
Your cookie preferences have been saved. You can update your cookie settings at any time on the cookies page.
Sorry, there was a technical problem. Please try again.
This site is a beta, which means it's a work in progress and we'll be adding more to it over the next few weeks. Your feedback helps us make things better, so please let us know what you think.
A man has been sentenced to five years in prison after leading police in Cambridgeshire and Kent on two pursuits.
Officers from the Cambridgeshire Road Policing Unit were alerted that a stolen grey Toyota RAV4 was being driven in Cambridge on 30 April.
The team began to patrol the city and found the car in Catherine Street.
As officers went to speak to Sokrat Vata, who was driving the car, he mounted the curb and made off at speed.
The 27-year-old stopped a short while later to let a passenger out before continuing to Clara Rackham Street where he then ran off and threw a bundle of cocaine in a bush.
Vata was found hiding in the back garden of one of the properties. He had £560 in cash in his pockets and officers found number plates in his car. He tested positive for drug driving.
In a separate incident in Kent on 13 April, Vata flipped the cloned vehicle he was driving after failing to stop for police on the A20 at East Malling. Vata wasn’t caught and arrested at the time but several bags of cocaine and number plates were recovered from the vehicle.
At Cambridge Crown Court on Wednesday (25 September), Vata, of no fixed address, was sentenced to five years in prison after previously pleading guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, two counts of dangerous driving, possession of cannabis and drug driving.
Upon sentencing, His Honor Judge Grey described seeing ‘a parade of misery pass through the court caused by drugs’ every week. He said drug addiction leaves a ‘trail of damage’ including ‘huge proportion of burglaries, robberies and thefts’. Finally he went on to say how drug dealing ‘directly leads to significant amounts of serious violence, particularly knife crime.”
Detective Constable Louise Trippett, who investigated, said: “Vata was determined to do all he could to evade police that day. Unfortunately for him, our officers were right behind him all the way and were not prepared to let him get away. He now has a lengthy prison sentence for which he can use to consider his actions.”
Video footage of the Cambridge pursuit can be viewed on our YouTube channel.