A MAN who drove at PCSO who was controlling traffic while paramedics were treating a man who collapsed in the street has been spared jail.

Piotr Kostuj, 20, who comes from Poland but has spent about eight years in the UK, appeared at Basildon Crown Court yesterday after previously admitting dangerous driving, driving without insurance and without a licence.

He also previously admitted possession with intent to supply cannabis and amphetamine on a different occasion, but said that he had been pressured into dealing drugs by the “Polish Mafia”.

He further admitted possessing an asp - a type of extending baton used by police.

Unemployed Kostuj, of Conway Gardens, Grays, was due to stand trial for the offences but changed his pleas to guilty at the last moment - claiming that he was coerced into dealing drugs.

During the sentencing hearing, David Patience, prosecuting, said: “On October 4 2015 at 11pm, the defendant was acting suspiciously in an alleyway near Cromwell Road, Grays.

Under a bush, there was a pouch containing 12 wraps of cannabis and seven wraps of cocaine, as well as a black extendable asp.

“The defendant was arrested and during that journey, he tried to destroy a SIM card from his mobile phone.

“The defendant gave a false home address and officers went to conduct a flat search but they discovered he was not linked to that address. He later made the suggestion that he had been made to deal drugs by a Polish man, who tried to run him over, tied him up in the woods and put a meat cleaver against him.”

Describing the incident involving driving offences, which happened in Orsett Road on August 2, Mr Patience told the court that officers approached Kostuj’s Honda Civic because it had triggered ANPR cameras for not having insurance. He said: “A man had had a heart attack and officers were directing traffic around a junction.

“A PSCO spotted the Honda Civic in a queue of traffic and informed a sergeant, who approached the door and shouted ‘stop for police’.

“He accelerated away, narrowly missing the officer who opened the door. Another PCSO has had to run out of the way to avoid being hit. She said that he was driving at approximately 60mph.

“She said that he was driving towards her and she had to move out of the way.”

Defence counsel Paul Stanislas said: “This defendant is a man of previous good character. He said that he didn’t know that they were police officers as the police officer who approached his car did not come from the front of his car.

“He said that he thought it was one of the people who had threatened him and told him to sell drugs.”

Sentencing, Judge David Owen-Jones told Kostuj that he reluctantly had to suspend his sentence because of the amount of time he had already served in prison.

He said: “Because of the time you have spent on curfew and in custody, were I to imprison you immediately, the likelihood is that you would be released within a very short period of time.

“I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that I will pass a suspended sentence.”

Kostuj was jailed for a total of 14 months, suspended for two years. He was also disqualified from driving for two years, ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and pay £400 court costs.