VIDEO: High-speed police chase ends in £270,000 crash into prestige car dealership

By Tom Sharpe

19 July 2021

A prestige used car dealer has told AM how a high-speed police chase ended in a vehicle colliding with a row of forecourt display cars – causing £270,000 worth of damage.

CCTV footage of the collision at Enkae Prestige car dealership at Crosland Moor, Huddersfield, shows a Volkswagen Golf overturn as it collides with a row of nearly-new display vehicles, including two Mercedes-Benz A45 AMGs, a Mercedes-Benz C63 S AMG and an Audi RS5 Sportback.

The collision marked the dramatic conclusion of a car chase involving officers from West Yorkshire Police.

James Brown, sales director at the Enkae Prestige car dealership, said that he felt “sick” upon discovering the damage to his used car stock and “stunned” when he viewed the footage.

Brown said that he damaged vehicles were all 21-plate stock and among the business’s highest value products.

Enkae Prestige currently stocks 74 vehicles, with most stock being classed as “upper middle range” by Brown, with prices starting at around £30,000.

"Business has been buoyant since we opened up again and we've doubled in size and pushed hard to invest in new stock, so this is a real blow,” he said.

“This is not easy stock to come by and those cars are irreplaceable really.

“At the moment the main concern is retrieving the insurance money. Right now we don’t know whether the driver of the Golf was insured and whether this is all going to come out of our policy.”

West Yorkshire Police arrested a 42-year-old man and a 31-year-old man at the scene of last Tuesday’s collision.

They were arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, failing to provide a specimen, possession of an offensive weapon and drugs offences.

In an interview with the Huddersfield Examiner newspaper, Brown questioned why the police were chasing the vehicle so closely in a heavily built up area.

"Just 30 minutes before the accident three of us were all standing exactly in the same spot that the car crashed,” he added.