A THIEF who ran down a policeman during a 30-minute chase was locked up for 27 months at Lincoln Crown Court.

Damian Codona, 19, collided with the officer after two men were spotted stealing £3,500 worth of scaffolding poles from agricultural premises in Moulton Seas End, near Spalding.

The court heard some of the poles were thrown "javelin style" at pursuing police cars.

Codona avoided a stinger device by violently swerving into a verge where he knocked down a waiting police officer, the court was told.

Codona, of St Paul's Close, Gorefield, Wisbech, admitted driving dangerously on the A17 between Moulton Seas End and Sutton Bridge. He also admitted a charge of theft following the chase on May 17.

Sentencing Codona to 27 months in a young offenders' institution, Judge Sean Morris told him: "You could have killed somebody."

Codona was also banned from driving for three years and will have to take an extended retest.