Villains who ram police cars in a bid to evade arrest are costing the West Yorkshire force thousands of pounds.

Police vehicles can be put out of action for weeks, leaving officers to borrow traffic cars from other divisions, because of the desperate efforts of criminals not to be stopped.

Last week two police cars were badly damaged when they were in collision with a suspected stolen car, in Oaks Lane, Fairweather Green, Bradford, following a pursuit.

Sergeant Hugh Robinson, in charge of roads policing for the Bradford South division, said Tactical Pursuit and Containment (TPAC) incidents occurred on almost a daily basis but very few led to police vehicles being off the road and there were even fewer instances of patrol cars being very seriously damaged.

The TPAC system, which is used by most police forces, involves boxing in a vehicle which police want to stop with three patrol cars - one in front, one behind and another alongside. Traffic officers have to be specially trained to use the system.

Sgt Robinson said that, from time to time, drivers would try to ram their way free, but the ploy was not on the increase.

He said: "You will always get a person desperate to get away who will revert to tactics like that, not caring for the safety of officers, themselves, or members of the public. We have had a couple such incidents recently, but there hasn't been an increase.

"If police vehicles are damaged they can be off the road for a short period of time, or for longer if they are more badly damaged. You can go weeks without any damage, then get two, three or four in a short period of time.

"There are contingencies, with pool cars to replace vehicles off the road. But if it is repeated throughout the force it impacts on the availability of police vehicles.

"There are rare occasions when officers will come on duty and have to wait for other officers going off duty for their cars. Divisions may go short and borrow from others."

Sgt Robinson said his division was currently two cars down, one due to a TPAC incident and the other because of a mechanical failure.

He added: "We have enough vehicles for day-to-day policing. If we are running an operation over what we would normally be doing we might borrow a car from another division. But I am happy with the number of vehicles we have."

Inspector Paul Hawkuluk, head of driver training for the West Yorkshire force, said inevitably police vehicles would occasionally be damaged during TPACs.

He added: "Perhaps people are not as willing to stop for us as they were ten years ago."

e-mail: steve.wright @bradford.newsquest.co.uk