A man who made a "frighteningly stupid" attempt to avoid paying his car finance by orchestrating a high-speed motorway chase and falsely claiming his electric Jaguar had failed to brake has been jailed for four years and three months.

Nathan Owen, 33, deliberately collided with a police vehicle 31 times during the pursuit, which began after he telephoned emergency services to report his car was accelerating uncontrollably.

Liverpool Crown Court heard on Monday that Owen drove at speeds of up to 86mph across the M58, M57, and M62 in Merseyside for approximately 35 minutes, covering a distance of around 38 miles on March 6, 2024.

Sentencing him, Judge Ian Unsworth KC stated: "You set in train a course of conduct which caused a significant police traffic operation to be deployed, undoubted alarm to the public and very substantial loss and disruption to others."

The judge noted that police officers had placed themselves in danger, believing they were responding to a genuine emergency, adding: "You, meanwhile, sought to profit from a lie."

Prosecutor Eric Lamb explained that Owen, from Prestatyn, North Wales, had entered a finance agreement for the Jaguar I-Pace in September 2023.

By March the following year, he was in "financial difficulties" and in arrears with CA Auto Finance, with approximately £5,000 outstanding. On the day of the incident, Owen was denied a further loan from another company, Plata. Five minutes later, shortly after 2pm, he dialled 999 with his fabricated story.

Mr Lamb revealed: "In fact, his car was stationary at the time of that call." Police attended, and the vehicle, then travelling at high speeds, had to be "boxed off" by emergency service vehicles to protect other road users before it was eventually brought to a stop on the M62 near Warrington, Cheshire. Investigations subsequently confirmed there was no fault with the car.

"He had fabricated the events in order to enable him to get rid of the vehicle," Mr Lamb told the court. "He had full control of the vehicle and with full control of the vehicle he travelled at excessive and extreme speeds." The incident led to the closure of motorways.

Footage of the police pursuit and audio from Owen’s 999 call, where he claimed to be "shaking" and that the car had "gone crazy," were played in court. When the car was finally stopped, its brake lights were observed to be functioning.

Owen contacted the finance company 40 minutes after the incident and later sold his story to The Sun for £300 and the Daily Mail for £500.

Murray Paul from Jaguar Land Rover UK stated that the firm incurred an additional £50 million in marketing costs to counteract the negative publicity from the false allegations, which generated 180 pieces of adverse media coverage.

Defending, Daniel Travers described Owen’s actions as "frighteningly stupid." He told the court that Owen, who had no previous convictions and came from a "successful, stable family," was characterised by his father as a "Walter Mitty character" who "lives in a fantasy world." Mr Travers added: "He had grand ideas and things just went wrong."

Owen pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and two counts of fraud in June. He has also been banned from driving for five years upon his release from custody.

Detective Constable Michael Doyle commented after the sentencing: "It was clear from our investigations that he was in full control of his vehicle throughout the duration of the incident. By his own admission there were workers on the hard shoulder of the motorway and he clearly put them and other road users in danger with his reckless actions."

A charge of causing a public nuisance was ordered to lie on the file.