Driver jailed after faking I-Pace ‘malfunction’ during 38-mile police chase

A UK driver who falsely claimed his Jaguar I-Pace had suffered brake failure, triggering a police chase across three motorways, has been jailed for four years and three months after a court found the entire episode was staged.

Nathan Owen, 33, called 999 in March 2024 claiming his electric SUV had “gone rogue” and that he could not stop it, sparking a major emergency response as police treated the call as a genuine runaway vehicle. Owen drove for around 38 miles across the M58, M57 and M62 near Liverpool at speeds up to 86mph, colliding with a police car 31 times before the I-Pace eventually rolled to a stop, its battery depleted.

Merseyside Police and Jaguar Land Rover investigated the vehicle afterwards and found nothing wrong with it. Data showed the car was stationary 30 seconds before Owen made his emergency call, and that he never applied the brakes throughout the pursuit. Prosecutors told Liverpool Crown Court the incident had been fabricated to escape car finance repayments Owen was behind on, after a bank had refused him a further loan that same day. He was also paid by British tabloids for his account of the “malfunction” in the days that followed.

Owen pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and two counts of fraud. Sentencing him, Judge Ian Unsworth KC told the court he had “sought to profit from a lie” and had caused “very substantial loss and disruption to others.” He was banned from driving for five years and must pass an extended test before he can reapply for a licence.

Detective Constable Michael Doyle, who led the investigation, said Owen had been in full control of the vehicle throughout, and that his actions had endangered road workers on the hard shoulder as well as other motorists.

Jaguar Land Rover told the court the false claims generated more than 180 pieces of negative media coverage and forced the company to spend an additional £50 million, around NZ$115 million at current exchange rates, on marketing and customer incentives to rebuild confidence in the I-Pace.

Read more via the BBC.

A model that can’t catch a break

There is a small irony in all this for New Zealand readers. The I-Pace was named 2019 New Zealand Car of the Year by the NZ Motoring Writers’ Guild, the first fully electric car to win the award, with then Guild president Richard Edwards praising its “innovative design and feature set” at the time.

Since that high point, the I-Pace has not exactly had the smoothest run. It has been the subject of repeated recalls over a high-voltage battery fire risk that authorities are still working through years later, a brake response delay recall, and even a rare second recall after a dealer botched the fix for the first one.

So there is something almost unfair about this particular headline. For once, the I-Pace itself was entirely innocent. It was the driver who was rogue.