Nathan Owen’s M62 Jaguar hoax ended with a jail term of four years and three months after he admitted dangerous driving and two counts of fraud. Liverpool Crown Court heard he had falsely told police his Jaguar I-Pace would not stop on the motorway, a claim that sent officers into a 38-mile pursuit across Merseyside.
Owen, 33, called police on 6 March 2024 while driving on the M57 and told the call handler: "I don't know how to explain, my car's not stopping, my car's stuck at 78mph and I'm going down the motorway". He also said: "I'm coming to a massive bend on the motorway". The court heard the false report was tied to his effort to get rid of the vehicle and leave his finance agreement.
Liverpool Crown Court and Merseyside Police
Eric Lamb told the court Owen had travelled at extreme speeds of up to 86mph, gone through red lights before entering the motorway, and texted his girlfriend while apparently not in control of the vehicle. He also said the car collided with a police car on a number of occasions. Police dashcam footage showed Owen’s car tailing a police vehicle while he was on the phone to a 999 call handler.
The sequence matters because the call was not made from a moving emergency scene. The court heard the original call to police took place while Owen’s car was stationary, and it came five minutes after he had called his car finance company and been rejected when he asked to borrow more money. After the police call, he rang the finance company again and repeated what he had told police.
Jaguar Land Rover and £50m
By the next day, Owen had sold his story to The Sun and the Daily Mail for a combined £800. Liverpool Crown Court also heard that Jaguar Land Rover was forced to allocate £50m in marketing costs to counter the adverse publicity. Merseyside Police said an initial delve into his finances showed a high level of personal debt and multiple missed payments on the vehicle’s finance.
Owen told the Daily Mail: "I felt like a criminal like in a big police chase, that's how it felt. It felt like Grand Theft Auto." What the court has now put on record is that the story he sold publicly did not match the call that started the police response, and the sentence closes the case around a false motorway emergency that became far more expensive than the £800 he received for telling it.
