Dramatic video shows hero policeman chasing gun-wielding thug, 21

This dramatic video shows a hero policeman single-handedly winning a ‘Catch Me If You Can’ battle to lock up a brazen young hoodlum terrorising his beat, who was jailed for 11 years.

Patrolman PC Paul Mottram had previously arrested James Saunders, 21, for drugs offences but the youngster was freed on bail.

Just weeks later the officer who was on the beat by himself caught Saunders with a loaded gun and a haul of drugs after keeping watch on him from outside a shop.

During the arrest in Eccles, Greater Manchester the officer spotted Saunders loitering with friends inside the store and confronted the group outside about a bag they were carrying.

Footage from his body camera then showed him pursuing one of Saunders’ accomplices who made a run for it and then tried to dump the bag in nearby bushes. Inside was a Colt.25 automatic handgun with Saunders’ DNA on it plus a magazine with six bullets and a haul of cocaine.

At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester Judge Anthony Cross QC said he would be recommending PC Mottram for a bravery award after Saunders was jailed for 11 years.

He told the hoodlum: ‘You have a contempt for law and order but PC Mottram was unsurprisingly far too smart for you. 

‘The police had known you were committing crime under their noses and you are precisely the sort of person unless detained, who would go on to commit serious crime – perhaps crime involving firearms. Despite this, someone took the decision to release you under investigation.

‘I have very little doubt that PC Mottram knew you would go on to commit further offences and so it was proven. I intend to commend to the Chief Constable for his police work and considerable bravery.’ 

Saunders, from Weaste, Salford first came to police attention in December 2018 after a Tazer gun disguised as a torch and with his DNA on it was found along with a haul of cannabis and heroin at a house in Liverpool.

Later in February 2019 PC Mottram was on lone patrol in a park in Eccles when he spotted Saunders openly smoking cannabis.

‘He challenged Saunders for blatantly smoking it in a public place and in front of an officer but Saunders then spat the cigarette out of his mouth and into the ground,’ said Miss Isobel Thomas prosecuting.

‘PC Mottram began searching the defendant and felt an item in the waistband of his tracksuit bottoms and suspected he had drugs concealed. But Saunders removed the item from his pants and then dragged the officer forward.

‘He handed the item plus a mobile phone to two other men who then ran off as PC Mottram was handcuffing him. PC Mottram was on his own at the time.’

Saunders was taken to the police station but was bailed after claiming the item in his waistband was a clothing label.

The following May, PC Mottram was patrol again on his own and saw Saunders and two accomplices apparently hiding from him inside a corner shop.

PC Mottram drove round the corner to appear he left the scene but saw Saunders and his friends emerge from the store laughing and walking to a nearby Honda car.

The officer then drove back and confronted the group sparking a dramatic pursuit which culminated in the seizure of the gun and drugs. 

Tests showed the gun was cocked and ready to be fired whilst the bag it was hidden in also contained £499 in cash plus 16.7g of cocaine of 79 percent purity.

Saunders escaped but was caught the following month after PC Mottram spotted him at the wheel of a stolen Ford Focus car fitted with false number plates.

He was bailed again but failed to show up for court and was finally locked up in November 2019 after police raided his home and found him hiding in the loft with a black Gucci shoulder bag containing £368 cash and wraps of heroin and cocaine.

Saunders admitted possession of a loaded firearm in a public place, money laundering, possession Class A drugs with intent to supply, possession of an electric stun gun, handling stolen goods, disqualified driving and failing to appear at court.

In mitigation defence counsel David Toal said his client had been moving the bag containing the gun and drugs for another gangster and added: ‘This defendant has had a degree of influence put over him.

‘He has been subjected to serious violence in the past on more than one occasion from people higher up the food chain than him. It is not suggested this is a case of duress as people who get involved in drug dealing just accept that it is a world of serious violence.’

Adam Buckley, 19, of Eccles was jailed for three and a half years after he admitted possession of a firearm and possessing drugs with intent.

After the case Det Sgt Daniel Worthington, of Greater Manchester Police said: ‘It is utterly inconceivable to many that two young men can go out on our streets in broad daylight with a loaded weapon with a feeling that they are so above the law that they won’t be caught – they were foolish in thinking this would be the case.

‘It is thanks to some thoroughly good policing from PC Mottram hat Saunders and Buckley were both initially identified and then later caught, and that their criminal stash of items were recovered.’