The former managing director of a Clacton fast food restaurant has been jailed for smashing a van into a police car during an escape bid.

Kemal Sadik and his accomplice Joseph Mitchell were in a stolen van when police tried to stop them in October.

But Chelmsford Crown Court heard yesterday how the van was driven into the back of a police car, nearly overturning it when officers tried to stop the van on the Clacton bypass.

Soon afterwards, the van was driven at the police car and spun it around after the vehicles collided.

Sadik, 28, was jailed for 30 months after he admitted handing the stolen van and dangerous driving.

Mitchell, 24, admitted a charge of burglary and was jailed for 18 months. He also asked for three similar matters to be considered.

Craig Rush, prosecuting, said both men lived in Flatford Drive, Clacton, where on October 20, a stolen van was parked in a layby.

Police got a company to recover the van and it was taken to a secure yard. Mitchell found out where it was to be taken and in the early hours of the next morning, the yard was broken into, Mr Rush said.

A hole was cut in a metal wall and shutters opened, causing £2,000 damage, before the vehicle was taken, the court heard.

When they were arrested later, Mitchell told police some people had come to his home and offered to help him recover the van.

Sadik told police he saw the van parked near a unit and was asked to drive it.

"The van was not valuable and even less so now but it contained an expensive Jetski and a £2,000 motorbike," Mr Rush said.

Julia Robertson, mitigating, said Sadik was a family man who had been drug free since being remanded in custody. In the past, he had worked as a disc jockey and managing director of a disco and Southern Fried Chicken in Clacton and Chelmsford.

John Donnelly, for Mitchell, said drink was the root of his behaviour.

Judge Jonathan Haworth said the burglary was "audacious."

Published Thursday, March 21, 2002