A DRIVER fled the scene after he smashed through a fence on Leigh cliffs.

At 11pm on Sunday night, the silver Mondeo was spotted by police with no lights on.

Officers tried to pull the car over but it failed to stop. They did not attempt to pursue the driver and the car was found at 11.25pm, crashed into a fence in Cliff Parade, Leigh.

Essex Police spokeswoman Donna Veasey said to chase a vehicle, it had to be authorised and officers had to suspect there wa a serious crime taking place.

She said: “At no time was the vehicle pursued.

“We are appealing to anyone with information to contact officers at Rayleigh Road Policing Unit on 0300 3334444.”

One resident, of Cliff Parade, whodidn’t want to be named, said the first he knew was when he saw flashing lights.

He said: “We saw two fire engines an ambulance and lots of police cars. My daughter heard an almighty crash, but she thought she had heard something to the back of the house, near the Broadway, so we didn’t even look out the front.

“About ten minutes later, we saw the police and fire engines.

“All the lights were flashing but they often go past so we didn’t take much notice until I realised they had all stopped. We couldn’t see anything other than a hole in the fence.”