A ROBBER who was boxed in by road workers after stealing a woman's Audi A3 told police he was ‘MI5’s best agent’.

Police said 41-year-old David Richens pushed his victim to the floor as she opened the door to get into her car in Peterborough in September, last year.

Richens, of Townleye Avenue, Accrington,

climbed into the driving seat and told the woman he was taking her car before driving off at 10.20am.

Police were called and headed to Peterborough, but just 16 minutes later – at 10.36am – Richens drove the car through a road closure onto the carriageway of the A1.

A road worker manning the closure saw the car smash through the plastic barriers and immediately warned around 50 other road workers further along the A1 that a car was approaching them. Some of the road workers then got in their vehicles and manoeuvred them to block Richens’s path.

Richens came to a stop just before the vehicles and was also blocked from reversing by another vehicle.

When police arrived Richens claimed the Audi was his, adding: "I’m MI5’s best agent."

Richens was found guilty of robbery and dangerous driving and was sentenced and was given an indefinite hospital order.

Detective Constable Tom Adams said: “Driving through a road closure is incredibly dangerous and Richens was stopped roughly half a mile from where 50 road workers were working on the A1.

“It is only through the courage and quick-thinking of these road workers that Richens was stopped when he was. The situation could have been so much worse.

“Richens had no consideration for anyone else when he drove a stolen car recklessly.”