ESSEX Police have defended a high-speed chase staged specially for a TV show.

Channel Five is showing the second series of Police Interceptors, a documentary charting the actions of the force’s three intercept teams armed with automatic number plate recognition technology.

The teams, based in Basildon, Colchester and Chigwell, use powerful Mitsubishi Evos and Subaru Imprezas to chase crooks, often in high-speed pursuits.

But the force has come under fire after officers staged a chase involving show presenter Natalie Pinkham.

Officers gave the presenter, who was driving a high-powered Lamborghini fitted with a tracker, a 30-minute start.

They then spent around an hour pursuing her, at times breaking the speed limit and using blue lights.

But the move has been blasted by road safety charity Brake.

Spokeswoman Katie Shephard said: “The police need to consider whether it’s vital to be speeding and whether they should be putting on blue lights for a training exercise. Perhaps they could have done it on tracks where there is no risk to pedestrians.”

And Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, added: “It’s concerning that Essex Police seem to think their officers and valuable cars can be spared for use as film extras.”

But Essex Police said the chase was one of several training exercises filmed for the show.

Spokeswoman Donna Veasey said: “Police helped producers stage three scenarios, with one demonstrating the roadside drink-drive procedure and its road safety message, another highlighting offences associated with bodywork modifications and the final one a training exercise dealing with a stolen vehicle tracker-activation.

“Viewers also only saw police helicopter footage during the pursuits. The production team hired their own helicopter for the series.”

She said the Interceptors improved road safety by arresting 60 crooks in a month and taking 75 dangerous vehicles off the road every four weeks.

The criticism came after viewer Mike Sullivan complained to Chief Constable Roger Baker that the ANPR officers were “wannabe Lewis Hamiltons”.