A driver who went on the run to evade justice has finally been locked up for 15 months.

Holmfirth labourer Wayne Hoyle, 36, crashed his newly-bought Vauxhall Astra into another car back in September 2014, but he managed to get away from the scene after he struggled violently with a female police officer as she tried to arrest him.

A few days after the crash in Whitehall Road, Halifax, Hoyle was detained and questioned by police, but after being released he failed to answer his bail in October 2014.

Bradford Crown Court heard that Hoyle, of Southwood Avenue, Honley, was on the run for months until he handed himself in to the police in April last year.

But the following month he breached his bail again and was not arrested until a few weeks ago.

Hoyle finally pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, escape and damaging a police radio.

He also admitted related offences of failing to surrender to bail, driving while unfit through drugs and driving without insurance.

Prosecutor Robert Galley told the court that when officers arrived at the scene of the collision, one of them described Hoyle as “foaming from his mouth”.

He said the defendant was unsteady on his feet and clearly under the influence of something.

During the struggle with the female officer Hoyle grabbed her round the neck and punched her in the chest.

When Hoyle was questioned about the incident in September 2014 he said he had taken large quantity of sleeping pills and was “off his head”.

The Recorder of Bradford Judge Roger Thomas QC was told that Hoyle was depressed at the time of the offences and he had panicked when the police tried to arrest him.

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Judge Thomas told Hoyle that he shouldn’t have been in control of a vehicle after taking the tablets and he was a danger on the roads.

Hoyle was sentenced to a total of 15 months in jail for the various offences and banned from driving for two years.

He will also have to take an extended driving test at the end of his disqualification.