Megan Nolan has been jailed for one year for putting people’s lives at risk (Picture: Cavendish)

A judge has jailed a woman after describing her dangerous driving as the worst case he had ever seen.

Megan Nolan, 24, only stopped when smoke started pouring out of the engine of her VW Scirocco.

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The mother-of-two was jailed at Manchester Crown Court which heard that she was uninsured and had been out drinking with friends before getting behind the wheel.

Judge Martin Rudland told her that it would be ‘wildly wrong’ not to send her to prison for her ‘selfish and ludicrous’ driving.


Nolan’s career now lies in tatters as she will be in prison when she was due to start her new job as a teaching assistant in September.



The court heard that she had been out drinking with friends in Bury before making her way home at around 1am.

She drove at speeds in excess of 120mph as she led police on a dramatic police chase (Picture: Cavendish)

Traffic police saw her speeding on the M60 so they started following her.

They lost her after she drove through two red lights into oncoming traffic, but a second police car caught up with her after she rejoined the motorway.

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Several attempts were made to stop as she weaved between traffic on the motorway before coming off at Wythenshawe, driving through residential areas at over 70mph.

After 20 minutes her engine started smoking, ending the police chase and resulting in her arrest shortly after 1am on June 4.

Prosecutor said: ‘She was forced to pull the car over after it began smoking, when she alighted from the vehicle and tried to run but was arrested a short way away.

‘When she was interviewed by police she admitted that she had been drinking in Bury, and had been driving home when the officers put their lights on and she panicked.

She only stopped when her engine started smoking and she tried to run off but was arrested soon after (Picture: Cavdendish)

‘She admitted the quality of her driving was as was shown on the footage. She had no insurance and she said she was a stupid idiot who was lucky that no one had been hurt’

The court did not hear details of any breath tests taken at the scene. Her lawyer Mike Harman said that Nolan was stressed because she was a witness in an impending court case.

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He said: ‘This young lady at 24 years of age has nothing, not even a youth caution or reprimand on her record.

‘She has two young boys ages five and three, from a good family and is quite softly spoken.

‘From the footage we have seen this time and time again, but with burglars getting away from the scene or drug dealers with drugs in the side of the car or the boot.

‘That is not the case here. I have asked her why, probation have asked her why everybody has asked her why and she herself cannot explain it.

‘Sometimes thoroughly decent people are only human and humans make mistakes and so do thoroughly decent people, its inexplicable.

‘She herself says that she had two to three drinks, and the background is gone into in the pre-sentence report.’



He added: ‘There was no collision, only her vehicle was damaged and mercifully no one was injured and that is good fortune no design of the defendant.

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‘She is classed as a high risk victim and currently being supported. It would be catastrophic for her and her children if she was sent to Styal prison today.

‘She has got a job starting in September where she would ha employed as a teaching assistant and that would benefit the tax payer.

‘She received £1,000 in welfare benefits a months, and if she works then she will be earning her own money. If she gets sent to prison then that all goes out of the window.’

She cried as Judge Rudland told her: ‘I have to tell you Megan Nolan that this was the worst piece of dangerous driving that I have ever witnessed in my 15 years on the bench.

‘It would be wildly wrong of me in the public interest not to mark driving of this sort with a custodial sentence.

‘For over 20 minutes you indulged in the most brazen and sustained piece of driving with police chasing you sirens and bells going within three of following you.

‘You gave not thought to anybody including yourself or the two children you have who were asleep in bed at home.

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‘You had been drinking which I suspect was the reason you were attempting to evade the police by jumping red lights, negotiating junctions, travelling at excessive speeds and weaving throughout traffic without any thought to the approaching traffic.


‘You attained speeds on English roads Miss Nolan in excess of 120mph. No amount of thoughtful and well put together mitigating can justify that.

‘It is only by the largest fortune that no person was injured, but there are those people who would have been woken by the sirens and lights of the police in their own homes as the chased you in the course of your risky, selfish and ludicrous driving.

‘You will be deprived of your liberty for a substantial period of time. I take no pleasure in depriving your children of your company and your case but in light of the offences you committed a custodial sentence must follow.’

Nolan will serve half of her sentence in custody and the remainder on licence, with supervision for six months after that and must pay a £140 surcharge.

She was disqualified from driving for three years on her release, her licence will be endorsed and she must take an extended driving test.

Judge Rudland also commended the police officers in the pursuit, adding: ‘I would like to pay particular commend to the police officers driving the vehicles for their calmness, competence and care in dealing with what they were confronted with that day in their line of duty.

‘They were terrific and professional. In the various circumstances they were presented with they dealt with them brilliantly.’