A DRIVER whose police chase shocked TV viewers in the Call the Cops documentary is facing jail after he did the same thing again just three months after the series aired.

Christopher McDonald led police in two almost identical chases around country lanes near Shaldon, Bishopsteignton and Coombeinteignhead in March 2019 and December 2020.

Dashcam footage of the first chase horrified viewers of the fly-on-the wall Channel 4 series Call the Cops when it was aired in September last year.

It showed a police chase in which McDonald’s VW Polo went through sleepy villages at 60 mph and went over a humpback bridge so fast that all four wheels left the ground.

The tyre fitter had already been jailed for ten months, served his sentence and been released by the time it aired in the series which followed the work of the Devon and Cornwall police.

He was still banned from driving when police spotted a Vauxhall Insignia in Torquay and followed when it took off at high speed and headed out of the town on back lanes heading towards Newton Abbot.

A pursuing police car was forced to give up the chase twice because of McDonald’s extremely dangerous driving, in which he came within inches of causing serious injury to a moped rider.

He went through built-up areas of Torquay at 60 mph and accelerated up to 100 mph on back roads leading out of the town. 

The new chase was also caught on the dashcam of the police car and it showed him ignoring numerous road signs, and forcing two vans to swerve and brake to avoid him.

He abandoned the Insignia on a farm track near Shaldon, but was tracked across fields by a police dog called Drake, which found him just as he was being arrested by another officer.

He was seen walking away from the spot where the car was dumped and his muddy trainers matched footprints in the muddy field he had walked through.

McDonald claimed he had been delivering a different car for his boss at a house in Long Lane, near Shaldon, but the boss told police it was a pack of lies.

McDonald, aged 29, of St Paul’s Crescent, Torquay, denied dangerous driving and driving while disqualified but was found guilty by a jury at Exeter Crown Court.

Judge Anna Richardson adjourned sentence until Friday and ordered a probation pre-sentence report. She warned McDonald that the most likely outcome would be an immediate jail sentence.

Miss Bathsheba Cassel, defending, said McDonald had made changes to his lifestyle and overcome a drug problem in the 11 months since his most recent arrest.

During the two day trial, Mr Robert Yates, prosecuting, said a police patrol chased the Insignia after it failed to stop in Torquay and it reached very high speeds as it headed onto country roads leading towards Newton Abbot.

The pursuit started at around 12.30pm on December 12 last year and continued until the abandoned vehicle was found in a track off Long Lane, Shaldon, after 1pm.

Mr Yates said a female officer saw McDonald walking in Long Lane and stopped him. She was asking his details when dog handler Pc Mark Stevens and Drake arrived after tracking a trail through a muddy field.

Pc Stevens had seen a trail of shoe prints in the field which matched the trainers worn by McDonald.

Pc Callum Brown, who conducted the pursuit, said: ‘The driving was horrendous. His speeds were exceptional. It was outrageous. He went into a roundabout exceptionally fast.’

He said during his pursuit he went at 77 mph in a 40 mph limit and 100 mph in a 60 mph zone but failed to catch the Vauxhall. He gave up the chase twice because it was unsafe to continue.

McDonald told the jury he worked as a mechanic in Torquay and had been asked by his employer to deliver a different car to Long Lane during his lunch hour.

He said he knew nothing about the Insignia and was not the driver. He said he was to be picked up by his employer, who he claimed had lied to the police and the court.