Sliced, diced and beaten - Cape Town driver regrets his brazen dash for freedom

After he was pulled over under suspicion of driving under the influence, a 27-year-old  Capetonian made a break for it - and surely regretted his decision.

The city of Cape Town said the man, from Belville, was pulled over in Eerste Rivier on Sunday. He was one 11 people arrested for drunk driving during a "Ghost Squad" operation.

However, the man chose to flee from justice ... and lived to regret it.

In an attempt to scale the spiked wall of a residential property, the man sustained multiple cuts to his rib cage and fell to the ground on the other side. Once inside the property, the man spooked the owner of the house, who mistook him for a robber and proceeded to relentlessly beat him with a sjambok.

A police officer eventually caught up to the would-be suspect-at-large, and was able to intervene. He pulled the property owner away from the man, who was promptly arrested - albeit in worse shape than if he had co-operated with the officer in the first place.

The suspect was taken to the local hospital, where he received seven stitches to a wound caused by the wall spikes.

"This is not the first suspect who attempted to make a run for it, but it is certainly one of the first who came off so badly as a result," said the city’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith.

"What would have been a straightforward drunk driving case has now escalated into  resisting arrest and a possible trespassing charge, if the property owner decides to pursue the matter," he said.

"This is not to mention the physical impact of the attempted getaway. I commend the officer who didn’t give up and saved the suspect from the potential consequences of being mistaken for an intruder," he said.