A SOUTH PETHERTON man who left a group of police officers fearing for their lives when he carried out a frenzied bid to escape arrest has been remanded in custody.

Police went to speak to Matthew Reyland in connection with a stolen vehicle, but when he saw the officers approaching he leapt into a pickup truck and tried to flee the scene.

When he started up the vehicle to make a getaway he dragged one of the officers along the ground after his arm was caught in the window and pulled another one back with the truck.

He then reversed towards two more officers who had to jump out of the way to avoid being struck.

While trying to turn his vehicle around Reyland collided repeatedly with several of the police vehicles causing extensive damage.

He reversed a second time towards another officer who leapt behind a car for his safety and Reyland revved his engine and deliberately rammed the police vehicles repeatedly before making a getaway onto the Ilminster Bypass.

More police were called to deal with the incident, and he was eventually caught and arrested, Somerset Magistrates were told.

Reyland, 38, was brought before the court at Yeovil in custody and pleaded guilty to four counts of assaulting police officers, two offences of causing criminal damage to police vehicles, and taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent on October 6.

He was also before the court for a string of previous motoring offences including driving while disqualified and without insurance, making off without payment for fuel and bail act offences.

Prosecutor Ben Winzer said that on the day in question police had gone to an address in Seavington in relation to a stolen vehicle and missing person and when they approached the workshop Reyland was there.

As soon as he saw the officers he jumped into a Mitsubishi Pickup and reversed it at speed to get away from them but one of the officers tried to arrest him and his arm was caught in the window.

“He dragged him along the ground, but the officer managed to pull his arm out but was then hit on the elbow by a wing mirror and another officer was also pulled along by the defendant as he reversed away,” he said.

“He then reversed towards two other pedestrian officers behind him, and they had to jump out of the way in order to avoid a collision.

“Reyland collided with two police vehicles in order to make good his escape but was unable to get around them so reversed back towards a police officer again causing him to hide behind a car.”

The defendant then revved his engine, collided with the police vehicles again head-on causing significant front-end damage and pushing one up against the other, and drove out onto the A303.

In victim impact statements read to the court the police officers said they had genuinely feared for their lives during the incident.

Mr Winzer added that the offences had been committed while Reyland was subject to two community orders imposed by the courts for driving offences and had a total of eight disqualified driving offences on his record.

The magistrates adjourned the case until December 13 for a pre-sentence report to be prepared by the Probation Service and in the meantime remanded him in custody.