Man jailed after claiming electric Jaguar could not brake

Man jailed after claiming electric Jaguar was out of control, court hears 999 call preceded 35-minute motorway rampage, false tech scare triggers closures and police damage

A man who told emergency services his electric Jaguar had “gone crazy” and would not brake has been jailed after a court found he fabricated the claim, the Evening Standard reports. Nathan Owen was sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to four years and three months after admitting dangerous driving and fraud offences linked to a motorway incident in March 2024.

According to the report, Owen phoned 999 saying he had lost control of the car, prompting police to treat the call as a genuine emergency. Officers boxed the vehicle in with emergency cars to protect other road users, but the episode escalated into a 35-minute drive across motorways in Merseyside, with speeds reported up to 86 mph. The Standard says Owen repeatedly collided with a police car during the pursuit, and that motorways had to be closed.

The case turned on a simple contradiction: investigators later found no fault with the vehicle, and police observed the brake lights activating when Owen was stopped. In court, the judge said officers had put themselves in danger because they believed they were responding to a real mechanical failure, not a staged crisis.

The motive described in court was financial rather than technical. Owen had entered a finance agreement for the car months earlier and was behind on payments; the Standard reports he had sought additional borrowing and, after being refused, made the 999 call while the car was stationary. Prosecutors said the story was designed to avoid paying for the vehicle by making it someone else’s problem.

The fallout did not stay inside the courtroom. The Standard reports that Owen sold his account to tabloid newspapers, and that Jaguar Land Rover UK spent heavily on marketing to counter the negative publicity generated by the false claims. For manufacturers, sensational allegations of runaway electric cars travel faster than later findings of “no fault found,” and the cost of reassurance lands on the brand even when the driver is the one lying.

Owen was also banned from driving for five years after his release. The incident began as a call for help and ended with motorway closures, damaged police vehicles and a prison sentence for the man who made the call.