FORMER police officer Anthony Round shed tears of relief after a jury decided that a manoeuvre he carried out in an effort to arrest a suspect did not amount to dangerous driving.

PC Round - who had already driven the wrong way through parts of Folkestone’s one-way system - made a decision to mount the footpath in front of Samuel Wright, who had come to a halt after being chased by Mr Round and a colleague.

But as the patrol car turned at an angle in front of him, Mr Wright began to move and his leg was pinned between the car and a nearby garden wall, shattering it in two pieces.

Over the coming months he underwent extensive hospital treatment and even now, almost three years after the incident, still awaits one final operation.

Mr Round, who spent the whole of his 22-year police career as a tactical pursuit and containment driver, told Maidstone Crown Court: “He had been given a clear opportunity by me to stop running.

“Unfortunately - and I apologise for the injury caused - he ran and I hit him.

“I had slowed right down but had to speed up to get up the kerb, and I make it clear that only one wheel went up on the kerb.”

The force of the car hitting him and him running as well, must have been what broke his leg, he suggested.

“I never went into that wall,” he added. “The vehicle stopped and his weight pushed him on to that wall and it collapsed.”

Mr Wright, on the other hand, said he found himself pinned between the car and the wall.

He told the court how the police car had stopped about three or four metres away from him.

He said he was standing, waiting to be arrested, when Mr Round turned the car towards him.

“He started accelerating at me. I tried to get out of the way. He connected with me and shattered my leg in two pieces.”

As soon as it happened, he told the court, Mr Round came over to him, put a knee in his chest and said: “You’re not so fast now, are you?”

Mr Wright, who had never been in trouble before, was eventually given a conditional discharge after he admitted possessing the drug.

The chase began as Mr Round and a colleague, PC Shaun Carroll, were keeping observations on a house in Dover Road, Folkestone, one afternoon in October 2000.

Mr Wright, who was not known to the officers, was seen to arrive at the address with another man. There was a handshake between him and the occupant of the house and a package passed between them.

PC Carroll got out of the car and began to follow Mr Wright, who threw the package into a puddle.

“It turned out to be 96g of amphetamine sulphate,” said Mr Round.

The chase continued with PC Carroll on foot and Mr Round driving the car - in some cases, travelling the wrong way up one-way streets, while using his blue lights and siren to warn any oncoming traffic.

Mr Wright outpaced the running police officer and the chase finally ended in St Michael’s Road, Folkestone, when the car caught up with him.

In deciding to pull his car at an angle across in front of him, said Mr Round, he felt he was entitled to do so under Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act and Common Law, where he was using force to carry out the lawful arrest of an offender.

“After I’d hit him I got straight out of the car and went to try to console him.”

In summing up the case to the jury, Judge Andrew Patience, QC, had told them that they had three choices open to them; either to find the defendant guilty of dangerous driving, or to convict him of the less serious offence of driving without due care and attention, or to find him not guilty of either.

The 40-year-old former officer, from Heritage Road, Cheriton, Folkestone, was acquitted and discharged.

The court heard that in due course, following the incident, he was allowed to drive again as part of his duties, and in February 2001 he was appointed a temporary sergeant and was promoted to sergeant in May of that year.

But his police career has now ended and he suffers from health problems.