Watch pursuit and arrest of drug dealer in Cambridge who has been jailed for five years
A man who led police in Cambridge and in Kent on two pursuits has been jailed for five years.
Officers from the Cambridgeshire road policing unit were alerted to a stolen grey Toyota RAV4 being driven in Cambridge on 30 April.
Patrolling the city, they found the car in Catherine Street and went to speak to the driver, Sokrat Vata, but he mounted the kerb and made off at speed.
The 27-year-old stopped shortly after to let a passenger out, before continuing to Clara Rackham Street, where he ran off and threw a bundle of cocaine in a bush.
Vata was found hiding in the back garden of a property with £560 in cash in his pockets.
There were number plates in his car and he tested positive for drug driving.
In an earlier incident in Kent on 13 April, Vata had flipped the cloned vehicle he was driving after failing to stop for police on the A20 at East Malling.
He was not caught or arrested at the time, but several bags of cocaine and number plates were recovered from the vehicle.
Vata, of no fixed address, was sentenced at Cambridge Crown Court last Wednesday to five years in prison after previously pleading guilty to two counts of possession with intent to supply class A drugs, two counts of dangerous driving, possession of cannabis and drug driving.
Sentencing him, His Honour Judge Grey described seeing “a parade of misery pass through the court caused by drugs” every week.
He said drug addiction leaves a “trail of damage” and was responsible for a “huge proportion of burglaries, robberies and thefts”. He added that drug dealing “directly leads to significant amounts of serious violence, particularly knife crime”.
Det Con Louise Trippett, who investigated, said: “Vata was determined to do all he could to evade police that day. Unfortunately for him, our officers were right behind him all the way and were not prepared to let him get away. He now has a lengthy prison sentence for which he can use to consider his actions.”
