Video shows drug-driver racing at 125mph wrong way down motorway

Hair-raising moment drug-driver speeds the wrong way down the A1 at 125mph during terrifying police chase before pulling dangerous handbrake U-turn – as he is jailed for 20 months

• Thomas Garfitt, 29, led police on a terrifying 27-minute chase in South Yorkshire  

This is the terrifying moment a drug-driver was filmed speeding the wrong way down one of Britain’s main highways before pulling a dangerous handbrake turn.

Thomas Garfitt, 29, was captured in hair-raising footage pulling off the outrageous manoeuvre on the A1, which links London to Edinburgh. He has since been jailed for 20 months. 

In the film, released by cops, he is seen reaching speeds of 125mph during a dramatic 27-minute police chase. He’s captured storming through red lights and narrowly avoiding a crash as he weaves in and out of traffic and cuts up motorists at roundabouts at high speed.

A radio handler audibly gasps as he suddenly pulls the u-turn onto the main carriageway, narrowly missing traffic coming the opposite way.

This is the terrifying moment a drug-driver was filmed speeding the wrong way down one of Britain’s main highways before pulling a dangerous handbrake turn 

In shocking footage taken by a police helicopter, Garfitt can be seen speeding along the hard shoulder into oncoming traffic on the A1 in South Yorkshire

Sheffield Crown Court heard it was a ‘minor miracle’ Garfitt’s driving had not resulted in ‘serious injury or harm’.

The pursuit started at 8pm on April 25 when Garfitt suddenly took off from suspicious officers who had stopped his car in Sheffield, South Yorkshire.

Garfitt pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and failure to provide a specimen. He was jailed for 20 months on May 17 and banned from driving for four years and ten months

And after speeding through inner city roads, he reached the M1 motorway, where he weaved in and out of traffic while going almost twice the speed limit.

Six police vehicles and a helicopter were pursuing Garfitt when he headed the wrong way down the A1 dual carriageway, driving along the road’s hard shoulder.

He then went on to pull off an audacious hand-break turn in the middle of the road, after spotting a gap in the traffic, and returned the way he had just gone.

The lengthy chase ended when Garfitt eventually stopped his car and when police tested him, they found he was positive for cocaine.

Garfitt was charged with dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and failure to provide a specimen. He pleaded guilty to the offences at Sheffield Crown Court.

He was jailed for 20 months on May 17 and banned from driving for four years and ten months.

In the film, released by cops, he is seen reaching speeds of 125mph during a dramatic 27-minute police chase

Speaking after his sentencing, Acting Sergeant Joe Binley from South Yorkshire Police said he was pleased that the dangerous driver had been sent to prison.

He said: ‘We often find that drivers who fail to stop for us, usually as a routine stop are linked to greater criminality and will go to extreme lengths to avoid speaking to us.

‘We want drivers like Garfitt who are willing to pose such a risk off our roads, and I am pleased he has been sentenced to time in prison for his actions.’

‘Throughout a pursuit we are continuously monitoring the risks to the public, the risk to ourselves and the risk to the suspect.’

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