Speeding biker who vaulted the dock was coked up at 180mph

One of the UK’s fastest ever speeding bikers launched a dramatic escape bid when he leapt from the dock after he was jailed for 46 weeks.

Marian Dragoi, 19, tore along the M1 at 180mph on a 189hp Honda CBR superbike in a dramatic cross-county police chase.

Dragoi jumped red lights and sped down the wrong side of the road as he led officers on the half-hour pursuit in a black Honda on May 20 last year.

The teenage Romanian, wearing a shark mouth facemask, leaned onto the dock at Wood Green Crown Court and appeared to be listening intently as he was sentenced.

But he suddenly vaulted the chest-high barrier, fell to the floor on his side, and ran out of the courtroom pursued by dock officers.

Dragoi sprinted down four flights of spiral staircase from the top floor of the building chased by security staff who were joined by two police officers from another courtroom.

He was caught near the court entrance, handcuffed and marched back to the custody suite, after losing his facemask in the chase.

Judge Andrew Holmes then said: ‘It seems to me that that is a matter for the police to investigate and charge him as appropriate.

‘It does not amount to a contempt of court but it does amount to a criminal offence.’

The Romanian was first spotted by police in Green Lanes in Haringey where he was seen driving the superbike with a fake numberplate at around 9.20pm.

He cut across lanes and mounted pavements in a desperate bid to lose officers, at one point tearing down the hard shoulder of the M1 to refuel at a service station.

Once on the M1 he hit speeds of 180mph, entering Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire before winding up at the petrol stop outside Buckinghamshire.

Police managed to catch up with him before he finished filling up the tank and and safely arrested him.

Extraordinary footage released by the Met shows him weaving in and out of traffic on the hair-raising journey across the motorway as he was tracked by a police helicopter.

Dragoi, from Wood Green, admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop for police, driving a motor vehicle without a licence and driving without insurance at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court.

He was sentenced to 46 weeks in jail.

Arresting Sergeant Tony McGovern, from the Met’s Operation Venice Command, said: ‘At one point of the pursuit, Dragoi went straight through every single red light he was confronted with, rode on the wrong side of the road in his attempts to get away and even mounted pavements.

‘Throughout the pursuit, he continued to ride in a dangerous manner, and he only had the NPAS helicopter tracking him – without any police vehicles on the ground anywhere near him. “He failed to stop for police and continued to put his own life and the lives of other road users, as well as innocent pedestrians, into serious danger.

‘Our highly trained Operation Venice officers are out on the streets of London every day fighting moped, scooter and motorbike enabled crimes and I hope this case acts as a deterrent to anyone considering to display such erratic behaviour on our roads.’

Adam Campion, 26, from Hucknall, near Nottingham, was jailed for 21 months in July 2018 after he was caught racing along at 189mph – thought to be the highest speed ever by a biker on a public road.

Nadia Semlali, defending said: ‘As you’ll note from the pre-sentence report the defendant does say, sadly this a moment of madness, he has left his house due to being confined due to Covid, there are no excuses for that or that level of driving.

‘The defendant was the most at risk in this offence, the lack of protective clothing does show a lack of maturity, he has learned the error of his ways and it is something he does not intend to repeat.’

Dragoi nodded as Ms Semlali added: ‘He lives with his parents and his autistic younger sister, he takes her to and from school.

‘Losing her big brother would have a huge impact on her.

‘The defendant has been working full time since 17-years-old, he pays half the rent together with his father, he was working full time until Christmas but sadly with lockdown he’s been forced out of that.

‘He was working in construction as a traffic marshal, he is also studying level three business at Cactus College in Wembley, he attends once a week.’

Judge Holmes told Dragoi: ‘You fall to be sentenced for one of the worst forms of dangerous driving I’ve seen in a long time.

‘You proceeded through the streets of north London and then the M1 at terrifying speeds.

‘In 20 mile-an-hour areas you were doing 50 to 60, making hard turns, onto pavements, every light you came across you went across, knowing you were putting yourself at serious harm and other members of the public.

‘Having travelled at 70 on Lordship Lane and gone onto wrong side of the road and made way onto the A10, police cars were struggling to keep up.

‘Then you went to the M1, the speeds you went to were truly frightening.

‘Got to 170 to 180 miles an hour as you went from one county to the next, to the next.

‘To finish off this particularly bad piece of driving you realised needed to go into a service station so you stopped, turned the bike around, drove against the traffic into a service station.

‘That in itself was a piece of stupidity, the time of night it suggests it was quiet, all it took was one driver.

‘It seems that you at least initially tested positive for cocaine, no charge followed.

‘It is difficult to imagine a more serious case of more dangerous driving for about 30 minutes, over 70 or 80 miles and countless motorists, pedestrians and members of public that must have been close to you in that period of time.

‘If this is not a case that merits immediate detention, I don’t know what is.

‘You must understand that the offence is so serious that only a period of detention can be imposed, you will spend one half in custody before being considered for release.’

Dragoi was jailed for 46 weeks and disqualified from driving for two years and five months.