A TEENAGER who ran down a police officer during a 30-minute chase was today jailed for 27 months at Lincoln Crown Court.

Damian Codona, 19, collided with the officer after two men were spotted stealing �3,500 worth of scaffolding poles from agricultural premises in Moulton Seas End, near Spalding.

The court heard some of the stolen scaffolding poles were thrown in a “javelin style” at pursuing police cars as they followed Codona and his passenger down the A17 towards Sutton Bridge.

A stinger device was deployed during the chase but Codona avoided it by violently swerving into a verge where he knocked down a waiting police officer, the court was told.

Chris Lowe, prosecuting, told the court: “The officer was thrown onto the bonnet of the van and then fell to ground. Fortunately he sustained no serious injuries.”

The pair tried to run away after turning onto an isolated road but Codona was quickly caught. The other man escaped after jumping over a fence and was never traced.

On his arrest Codona told officers: “What’s your problem, they are only poles.” Police later recovered 37 of the stolen poles from the route of the chase.

Mr Lowe said Codona turned his headlights off and was seen driving the wrong way around a roundabout during the pursuit, at which he reached speeds of up to 70mph.

Codona, of St Paul’s Close, Gorefield, admitted driving dangerously on the A17 between Moulton Seas End and Sutton Bridge. He also admitted a charge of theft following the chase on May 17.

Michael Proctor, mitigating, said Codona denied deliberately driving the van at the police officer near the end of the chase. The court was told Codona is currently the subject of an unmonitored home curfew.

Codona was made subject to one of the first drinking banning orders in the UK earlier this year. The order banned Codona from all pubs or clubs in Wisbech town centre for two years and kept him out of the town in the evening.

Sentencing Codona to 27 months in a young offenders institution Judge Sean Morris told him: “You could have killed somebody. This is one of the worst pieces of dangerous driving I have ever had the misfortune to hear.”

Codona was also banned from driving for three years and will have to take an extended retest.