A former award-winning chef has been jailed after leading police on a 29 MILE high speed chase from Skelmsdale to Salford. Daniel Wallace, 26, previously won the Observer Food Awards (OFA) Young Chef of the Year Award in 2019 whilst working as a chef de partie at Gary Usher’s restaurant, Kala, based in Manchester.
However, after losing his job due to the COVID pandemic, his relationship with his partner deteriorated and they later split in December last year. prosecutor Nicholas Flanagan said. Matters came to a head in March this year following an argument, after which he accused her of treating him ‘poorly’ and became ‘aggressive and violent’.
He then packed up his belongings and left, taking her blue BMW, Manchester Crown Court heard. “After that, the defendant constantly threatened to kill her and burn her car out,” Mr Flanagan said. He also made threats to take his own life.
Detectives search golf course for weapon that killed nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-KorbelDuring a work trip, she changed the locks on her flat, and after returning home Wallace turned up five minutes later, leading her to think he had been watching her. She later installed a Ring doorbell as she became ‘scared’, and on April 1 she discovered that Spyware had been uploaded to her phone.
Wallace admitted an offence of harassment, but denied downloading the spyware.
She later reported to the police that her car had been stolen after it wasn’t returned. Wallace went on to bombard the woman’s mum with 50 messages.
In a victim personal statement, the woman said she was ‘petrified’ and felt scared to leave the house.
Days later, on April 4, the blue BMW was circulated as stolen and spotted by patrolling officers leaving Skelmsdale and joining the M58 where it took the M6 southbound.
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“The defendant was aware he was being pursued. He appeared to be going round in a large loop, and other unmarked police vehicles came to pre-empt a multiple lane containment,” the prosecutor continued.
“They estimated he reached speeds of up to 110mph. They tried to get in front of the vehicle to box him in but he tried to ram the police vehicles.”
Wallace moved from the M62 to the M6 and back onto the M602, repeatedly went onto the hard shoulder to overtake and undertake other cars and was driving in excess of 100mph.
The chase eventually came to an end when Wallace turned off at junction 3 in Salford but was blocked by traffic. Officers were forced to use a baton to break the driver's window and deployed their tasers in order to detain him.
The arresting officer said in a statement that it was one of the worst incidents he had ever seen in 13 years of service, and described restraining Wallace as a ‘life or death situation’. He added that Wallace had a ‘lethal capability’ in how he was driving over the 29 miles.
Wallace was said to have one previous conviction for drink driving in 2016.
Mitigating, Rebecca Caulfield said the relationship began to ‘take a turn’ when her client lost his job as a result of the pandemic. “The one thing he was successful at, he lost,” she said.
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“He accepts his behaviour went too far, he did not want to let go of the relationship.
“The ending of that relationship led to his state of mind which led to the chase, starting in Cheshire and culminating at the end of the M602. He tells me he was not thinking clearly.”
Sentencing, District Judge Richard Clews said: “There were some unpleasant threats, however no actual violence was used by yourself. You deprived her of her car which gives rise to the allegation of dangerous driving.
“This was during the day when traffic will not have been at its lightest. The pursuit went on for 29 miles, over three, if not four, motorways, up to speeds of 110mph.
“This was an appallingly bad piece of driving. There was no collision or injury but goes without saying that any witnesses driving past would have been seriously concerned, if not frightened, by seeing another car being driven in this way.”
Wallace, of no fixed abode, was jailed for 14 months and banned from driving for two years and seven months, after pleading guilty to harassment and dangerous driving.
Judge Clews added: “Plainly you have talents. I hope you can channel them properly and continue to be successful in life, but that will not be the case if you continue to behave as you did in the dying embers of your relationship.”
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