A KENT police officer seriously injured when he was run down in his own car by a youth who was later convicted of attempted murder has won the right to huge damages.

PC Guy Miller, 36, sustained multiple fractures, head wounds and was in a deep coma for two months after Ricky Hales, from Deptford, reversed over him as he struggled to oust him from the driver’s seat of his estate patrol car in Kings Hill, near West Malling, following a chase in December 2003.

In a judgement at London’s High Court, which partially closes a loophole in the law, Mr Justice Jack ruled that as a police constable, PC Miller was an “officer of the Crown” rather than an employee and Ensign Motor Policies at Lloyds, insurers of his Kent Police Authority car, was obliged to fully compensate him for his injuries.

Although PC Miller was entitled to compensation from Hales, any judgement against him would, in effect, be worthless, the court had heard.

For that reason, he sued Ensign, which denied it was under any liability.

Ensign maintained he was excluded from cover by a key section of the 1988 Road Traffic Act.

After the High Court hearing, PC Miller’s solicitor Ian Walker said: “Until today, police officers who were run over when their patrol car is stolen were not technically covered because they were not seen as employees, but as servants of the Crown.

“The judgement applies the law as parliament meant it, to cover all those injured in these circumstances, regardless of their employment status.”

The amount of compensation is expected to be a six-figure sum, due to the extent of PC Miller’s injuries.