'Come on then': quick-thinking woman gives officer a lift in her Nissan Micra to catch a dangerous Welsh drug driver

From the Newshound archive · first published 19 September 2026.

A passing motorist helped a Welsh police officer catch a fleeing suspect after stopping her car and telling him to "come on then" when he asked for a lift. Jacob Roberts, 25, of Mountain Ash, had sped away from officers in Abercwmboi, Rhondda Cynon Taf, after they smelled cannabis from his van, ramming a police car, crashing into parked cars and driving at double the 20mph limit. He ditched his van in a dead-end street and fled on foot — only to be caught when PC Peter Kerswell flagged down the woman's Nissan Micra and jumped out to taser him.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins told Roberts he was 'a very, very serious accident waiting to happen' and jailed him for 14 months.

Roberts was also banned from driving for three years and seven months after pleading guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and possession of cannabis.

Bodycam footage captured the woman asking the officer 'Where to?' as she drove him through the terraced streets of the former mining village.