A career criminal with more than 200 offences to his name is suing police after he was knocked off his bike by a patrol car when the officer tried to stop him cycling away.

James McNeilly, whose criminal record stretches back 25 years and includes violent robberies and defrauding a blind man, was in court to be jailed for the third time in 18 months when his solicitor revealed the legal action during mitigation.

The 46-year-old was pursued by a police car with blue lights on after the occupants spotted him throwing a sandwich on the ground while sitting stationary at traffic lights in Norwich, Norfolk.

When he pedalled away, the vehicle followed him and bumped into him, causing minor injuries when he fell. He didn’t seek hospital treatment.

Addressing magistrates in the city, James Burrows, defending, said: ‘He has a civil claim against the police for an incident where he was hit by a police car, resulting in leg injuries and head trauma.’

PC Frederick Boyle, who was driving the unmarked patrol car, resigned from the force before he was formally dismissed at a misconduct hearing for deliberately causing the collision.

Specially trained officers are allowed to knock people off bicycles and mopeds in a strategy known as ‘tactical contact’.

However, its use is governed by strict rules and must be proportionate and reasonable in the circumstances.

It is typically used against suspects involved in crimes such as robbery, theft or driving recklessly.

The McNeilly case triggered an online debate, with some furious about the potential payout to someone who has cost the public purse hundreds of thousands over the years from court hearings and incarceration.

One wrote: ‘In this wet, woke and pathetic country, they’ll probably end up giving him [McNeilly] a payout.’

Another said the criminal should ‘consider this incident an “occupational hazard”. You know if you commit a crime, you will be pursued by the police’.

But other comments included: ‘No doubt at all he is bad but that's not an excuse for the police to start knocking people off bikes and driving away.’

Peter Bleksley, an ex-Met Police detective turned author and TV crime and justice pundit, said: 'McNeilly is a public menace. 

'The officer who drove the car did not do himself any favours by failing to report what happened but it's a shame it had to come to him losing his job when they could have all received a warning - especially when you look at this career criminal's record and the fact he wasn't seriously injured. 

'As is often the case, the cover up is worse than the crime.

'I hope he [McNeilly] is unsuccessful in suing the force.' 

McNeilly appeared in the court last week where he admitted 15 new offences including stealing two bikes, shop thefts and multiple breaches of a Criminal Behaviour Order banning him from entering Tesco and Co-op stores.

Prosecutor Emma Pocknell told the magistrates the defendant had a ‘truly terrible record’ which included 142 thefts.

It came just two months after McNeilly was jailed for 20 weeks for stealing a newspaper delivery van in Norwich, leading to a police chase.

Last year, he was given a seven-month stretch inside for a series of shop thefts and carrying a 12-inch knife.

He was also jailed in 2024 for fraudulently using a bank card belonging to a blind man after taking advantage of a disabled couple.

And in 2018, he got five years and four months after admitting robbery and theft during a 12-hour crime spree.

McNeilly was not identified when the police misconduct panel published its report about the collision in February this year.

The document stated that PC Boyle had been on routine patrol on March 15, 2024, when he saw ‘Mr M’ toss a sandwich onto a grass verge.

He activated the vehicle’s blue lights, went through a red traffic light, and drove into Mr M, who was attempting to cycle away.

After checking if there were any outstanding warrants or other issues on the police national database, PC Boyle drove away from the scene, while McNeilly was left with a bike that could not be ridden due to the damage.

A member of the public who spotted the incident was concerned and reported the matter to the force.

During the hearing, the panel noted: ‘Mr M accepted that he had some injuries to his leg (reddening) but he could not see any significant injuries and so did not feel it necessary to call an ambulance.’

The officer, who said he had previously been involved in a collision while on police duty and had received eight penalty points on his internal licence, told the panel he didn’t report the incident as he feared it would ‘make mountains out of molehills’.

PC Kerron Tuttle, who was also in the car, described the incident as ‘a bad bit of driving’ and a ‘bad split-second decision’.

The panel said in its report: ‘The decision to turn sharply to the right was a deliberate decision made by former PC Boyle... because of a desire to ensure that Mr M was not successful in evading the officers’ attempt to detain him.’

It concluded that while there was no ‘significant injury’ caused to Mr M, the risk caused by PC Boyle's driving was high and serious injury could have occurred.

It therefore amounted to gross misconduct which was serious enough to place him on the police barred list, which prevents former police officers from working in any forces again.

PC Tuttle and another officer in the car, PC Abigail Thomas, were handed 18-month written warnings for failing to report the incident or ensure the cyclist’s welfare.

Other offences committed by McNeilly – who Mr Burrows said at a previous hearing had ‘spent half his life in prison’ - include multiple knife convictions, a carjacking and fraud by false representation.

Addressing the magistrates before the sentence was passed down, Mr Burrows added of his client: ‘He has spent most of the last quarter of a century serving custodial sentences. It’s not something he brags about but it is a result of his interaction with the system.

‘He is released from prison with nothing, so it is perhaps no surprise that he goes back to offending. He is stealing items to survive. None of his offences are sophisticated.’

The defendant was jailed for 34 weeks and told he must pay £1,100 compensation to the bike owners and another £500 to stores. 

Norfolk Constabulary said they had not yet received notification of a legal claim.