Dangerous drivers arrested by Nottinghamshire Police with help of a police dog in tonight's Police Interceptors

A police dog was released to help track down a fleeing driver, following a high speed pursuit, in tonight’s (Wednesday) episode of Police Interceptors.

Nottinghamshire Police dog handler PC Mark Haywood and canine Morse were called in after officers saw a Ford Fiesta driving dangerously.

The car was being driven on false plates and drivers failed to pull over when officers attempted to stop the car in Awsworth.

Attempting to evade officers, the driver careered around Ilkeston and eventually crashed into a bank on Millership Way.

The two men in the car rushed off on foot and into a densely wooded area, where police dog Morse became necessary to track them down.

Morse, alongside his handler PC Mark Haywood, got to work scanning a nearby towpath and within minutes had discovered a man hiding in the undergrowth.

The 18 year-old man was subsequently arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, failing to stop for police and possessing a fraudulent item.

PC Haywood said: “The dogs are an absolute asset when it comes to incidents such as this. Their abilities and extremely heightened senses massively increase our capacity to track suspects when they attempt to evade us.

“We got called in to help when officers realised the driver wasn’t going to stop. It is always a possibility that suspects try to ‘decamp’ and run off from us on foot when they can’t match the driving talents of our highly trained officers, and this is where our specially trained canine colleagues come in.

“The area that the two men were believed to have run off to was heavily covered by woodland, and coupled with it being after 9pm and pitch black outside, this presented a number of challenges for the officers on scene. This is where Morse was able to help and work through some of those difficulties.

“After setting him on the trail, Morse led me to a man hiding in the undergrowth within minutes and made light work of letting me know he was there and detaining him.

“He was then arrested, and a couple of days later officers tracked down and arrested the other man, a 19-year-old.

“This just goes to show that if you try to hide from a police dog, it is in vain. They are highly skilled and intelligent and are very often called upon for instances such as this. It won’t take long for them to find anyone who is on the run from them.”

A few weeks later the pair were arrested again after speeding around the streets of Redhill in a stolen car.

They again failed to stop for officers and upon reaching a dead-end jumped out of the moving car and ran away, letting it hit a parked car.

Officers caught up with the familiar faces and made the arrest, for which a charging decision is currently pending.

Also in this week’s episode, negotiators are on high alert after reports of a man throwing tiles from a roof, and an awkward family reunion is in store for an uninsured teenager driving his friends around in his father’s Mercedes.

Catch all this and more in tonight’s Police Interceptors, airing at 8pm on Channel 5.