A DRIVER was arrested after "appearing to be racing", smashing into a building and then running away from police.

Officers from West Yorkshire Police's Batley and Spen Team were on patrol last night in the Liversedge area.

They spotted two vehicles that "appeared to be racing" along Bradford Road and began to follow them.

One of the vehicles then lost control turning the corner onto Knowler Hill.

The driver crashed into a building wall and caused significant damage to it.

They then got out of the vehicle and ran off from officers, through gardens and over fences.

Police were able to catch the individual though and arrested them on suspicion of being unfit to drive through drink and drugs, after failing a road-side breath test.

The driver was also arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance.

The officers were out on patrol as part of a new police-run initiative in the Batley and Spen area, which was laucnhed on Sunday, July 5.

Operation Tireminster has been set-up to uphold standards on the roads within the area, by tackling illegal, nuisance and dangerous drivers.

This includes those speeding, using nuisance bikes (on and off-road), committing traffic offences (no insurance, no licence, red light jumping and illegal over-taking) and dealing with suspicious abandoned vehicles (those believe to be used as a pool car for criminality).

Specific officers across each of Batley and Spen's Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPT) have been allocated to proactively patrol and deal with any nuisance issues on the road.

The team also now has a dedicated off-road bike officer to help enforce the operation.