A man who hid underneath a vehicle in a bid to evade police has been sentenced.

Officers were alerted to a man, Patrick McCabe, being asleep in the back of his car at a petrol pump at a service station in Copthorne Common Road, Copthorne, around 8.40am on Thursday, 21 November.

Two police cars arrived on the scene, one parking behind the vehicle and one in front of the vehicle. McCabe, 24 of Croydon Road in Caterham, woke up and rammed the police car parked behind his vehicle and made off from the scene.

Officers, assisted by the police helicopter, pursued McCabe who drove with excessive speed, almost collided with a transit tipper van and even drove on the wrong side of the dual carriageway.

Watch the pursuit in full below.

McCabe was tracked driving down a pedestrian path before fleeing from the vehicle and attempting to hide underneath a car in a nearby hotel carpark. He was detained by officers and charged with dangerous driving, driving without a licence, driving without insurance and two counts of criminal damage.

The landscape gardener appeared at Lewes Crown Court on Friday, 20 December, and was given a 19-month sentence, suspended for two years, disqualified from driving for two years and 15 rehabilitation requirement days.