A driver drowning in debt has been jailed for more than four years after falsely claiming his electric Jaguar’s brakes had failed on a motorway in what prosecutors described as a “frighteningly stupid” bid to escape his car finance payments.
Nathan Owen, 33, repeatedly rammed a police vehicle as officers tried to stop the £70,000 Jaguar I-PACE, striking it 31 times while the car travelled across several motorways at speeds reaching 86mph.
Liverpool Crown Court heard on Monday that just five minutes before Owen contacted police to report he was unable to slow down, he had phoned a loan company seeking to borrow more money on top of an existing £3,000 loan — only to be refused.
Following Owen’s 51-month sentence, police released dramatic dashcam footage showing patrol cars attempting to box in the Jaguar and bring it safely to a standstill. Audio from his 999 call was also made public, capturing him telling the operator, “my car’s not stopping” and claiming it was “stuck at 70mph”.
During the call, Owen could be heard saying he was “shaking” and that the vehicle had “gone crazy”, as the incident forced the closure of motorways and triggered a major police response.
But investigators later established that Owen was parked at the Orrell interchange at the end of the M58 — and still stationary — when he first dialled 999.
A subsequent examination found he made no attempt to brake during the 35 minutes he remained on the phone to police while driving 38 miles along the M58, M57 and M62 in Merseyside on March 6, 2024.
The Jaguar eventually stopped on the M62 near Warrington, Cheshire, only after its battery charge ran out. As the vehicle slowed to a halt, dashcam footage showed its brake lights finally coming on.
Nathan Owen was in arrears with a finance company and ‘fabricated the events in order to enable him to get rid of the vehicle’
Police attempt to stop the car by pulling in front. The court heard Owen hit the patrol car 31 times
Owen’s car is seen in front on the busy road before he was stopped
Owen can be seen being escorted from his vehicle by police after it finally stopped
Investigations found there was no fault with the car, the court heard.
Owen was arrested on March 13, 2024, but denied fabricating the incident for financial gain – maintaining his story that the vehicle was faulty.
But an initial delve into his finances showed a high level of personal debt and multiple missed payments on the vehicle finance.
Text messages recovered from his mobile phone also showed him discussing how to get rid of the vehicle – including getting the car written off – in the months before the reported incident.
Eric Lamb, prosecuting, said Owen, of Prestatyn, North Wales, had entered into a finance agreement in September 2023 for the Jaguar I-Pace.
He ran into ‘financial difficulties’ and was in arrears with CA Auto Finance by March the following year with about £5,000 left to pay, the court heard.
Mr Lamb said: ‘He had fabricated the events in order to enable him to get rid of the vehicle.
‘He had full control of the vehicle and with full control of the vehicle he travelled at excessive and extreme speeds.’
The brake lights illuminate as the car slowed to a halt in the outside lane
Owen was arrested by Merseyside Police following the incident in March 2024
Sentencing him, Judge Ian Unsworth KC told Owen: ‘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 said police officers placed themselves in danger because they believed they were dealing with a genuine emergency.
Addressing Owen, he added: ‘You, meanwhile, sought to profit from a lie.’
The court heard Owen contacted the finance company 40 minutes after the incident.
In a statement, Murray Paul, from Jaguar Land Rover UK, said the firm had spent an extra £50million in marketing to try and counter the publicity from the false allegations, which they said generated 180 pieces of adverse media coverage.
Daniel Travers, defending, said Owen’s actions were ‘frighteningly stupid’.
He said Owen, who had no previous convictions and came from a ‘successful, stable family’, had been described by his father as a Walter Mitty character who ‘lives in a fantasy world’.
He added: ‘He had grand ideas and things just went wrong.’
Owen pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and two counts of fraud in June.
He was banned from driving for a period of five years after his release from custody.
Speaking after the sentencing, Detective Constable Michael Doyle said: ‘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.
