Andrew Farndon jailed for failed 'gun raid' on police

A man who tried to hijack two police cars while on the run from prison has been jailed for six years.

In January last year, Andrew Farndon escaped from custody in Suffolk while being taken to hospital and made his way to New Cumnock in East Ayrshire.

At the High Court in Glasgow, the 27-year-old admitted assaulting two police officers and using imitation firearms and in an attempt to rob them.

Farndon also admitted three other firearms charges.

He was originally jailed in 2007 after fracturing a victim's skull in a hammer attack.

On 25 January 2012, he was taken from Highpoint Prison in Suffolk to West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds, to be treated for a knife wound.

Outside the hospital, his former cellmate, Garry Cowan, 45, used a replica handgun to hold-up two prison guards and help Farndon escape.

On 27 January, police received information that Farndon was in the New Cumnock area and surveillance was put in place.

After crashing the car he was driving, Farndon tried to take an unmarked police car from PC Alexander Strachan, whom he did not know was a police officer.

A second officer then pulled up in his car and Farndon, holding a hand gun, opened the door and shouted "Get out".

The officer - PC John McGuigan - drove car away while Farndon held on to the driver's door pointing the gun at him.

PC McGuigan managed to grab hold of the gun and point it away from himself, before pulling it from Farndon and throwing it inside the car.

The officer then drove his car into a hedge to dislodge Farndon from the side of the vehicle.

Farndon was restrained and handcuffed by other officers before being taken to Ayr Hospital for treatment and on to Kilmarnock police office.

The handgun was examined and a ballistics officer confirmed it was a blank firing replica handgun loaded with blank ammunition and was not capable of firing anything.

It did, however, have a "strong likeness" to the firearm it is modelled on.

Passing sentence, judge Lord Matthews told Farndon that the courts take a "very dim view" of people who present firearms of any kind.

He said that although it was an imitation firearm the police officers did not know that at the time.