- Big Brother winner Craig Phillips feared he was going to crash his Jaguar I-Pace
- Has YOUR electric car gone rogue? Email: [email protected]
The first-ever Big Brother winner has revealed to MailOnline how he became trapped behind the wheel of his £76,000 Jaguar I-Pace while his wife and two young children were in the car after the brakes stopped working.
TV personality Craig Phillips, 52, is the latest electric vehicle driver to come forward with a horror story about being ‘kidnapped’ by a runaway car.
He revealed how within days of having his Jaguar returned from the manufacturer for a separate issue, he was unable to use his brakes as he approached a red light with two cars in front of him and traffic coming towards him in the opposite lane.
Mr Phillips feared that he was going to crash the car which had his two children, aged three and five, on car seats in the back, and his wife Laura Sherriff, 37, in the passenger seat as the family ventured out for a meal on New Year’s Eve.
He told MailOnline: ‘I can’t describe to you what a terrifying feeling that was when the two children are in the back. The more I pushed down, the more it forced up, and the car carried on rolling.’
Mr Phillips, who won the first series of Channel 4’s Big Brother in 2000, said he was fortunate that the lights changed from red to green and the two cars in front pulled away.
‘Otherwise I would have collided with them,’ he added. ‘There was no way of stopping. I had no options, I either mount the curb, run into the back of them or go into the lane coming towards me.’
Has YOUR electric car gone rogue? Email: [email protected]
It comes amid growing concerns over the safety of electric cars and follows another Jaguar I-Pace driver getting stuck behind the wheel as his EV raced up to 100mph on the busy M62 motorway on Tuesday.
And last October, another EV driver was kidnapped by his runaway £30,0000 MG ZS.
Still shaken up from the incident on New Year’s Eve, Mr Phillips revealed how he had just had his car repaired and delivered to him at his home in Rainhill, Merseyside, over Christmas.
He continued: ‘Four or five days later, I’d done about 50 to 60 miles on it, all local around my village, a quiet little village, driving away and it’s New Year’s Eve now.
‘We’re on the way to a restaurant to have some dinner, we’ve got the two kids in the back of the car, a three-year-old and a five-year-old in the car seats. Laura’s in the front with me, my wife.
‘And as I come driving towards the traffic lights, which were on red, two cars in front of me, as I braked, all of a sudden, it was like the hydraulic brake was pushing back on me.’
Mr Phillips, also known for TV appearances on ITV’s 60 Minute Makeover, said he was lucky because he had slowed down from around 40mph to 20mph because of the red light.
But he added: ‘I forced my whole body weight on it. And it was pushing me up. I’ve driven for 30-odd years, and I’ve driven many old vans where the brakes have gone.
‘Now normally, if a brake fails in a car or a van, it’s the hydraulics that have seized or the hydraulic pipe burst and you can still physically push down on the brake very hard, which would slow it down and stop it.
‘I’ve experienced that four or five times in the past with old builder’s vans, but this was the complete opposite. This was like the hydraulic pushing my foot up.’
Fortunately, the two cars pulled away which allowed Mr Phillips to turn into a quieter road and after about 30 metres the brakes cut back in and the vehicle came to a stop.
Mr Phillips, who bought the car brand new in March 2020, explained: ‘My wife was just looking at me really shocked and she asked “could you not brake then?”
‘She could see my whole body stiffen up as I pressed my body weight on it. And I said “No I literally could not stop the car”. It was free wheeling and it was pushing the brake back up on my leg.’
The couple decided that they could not continue onto the restaurant which was around 12 miles away and included motorways.
They instead slowly make their way back to the house, which was around a mile away, travelling at about 10 to 15mph.
But he added: ‘Just as I pulled into our house drive, it happened again. It happened where I had to brake, I was pushing my whole body weight and the car was just freewheeling and rolling forward, and then eventually come to a stop.’
Mr Phillips said he emailed Jaguar straight away and received an email a few days later asking him to bring it in to be looked at.
But he said he told them: ‘I’m certainly not going to drive it, it’s not safe’ and I put it in writing to them to say I wouldn’t advise one of your staff even to come and drive it because from our house to Hatfield, you have to go on two motorways.
‘I said it needs to be picked up, it needs to be transported. And their response was “we don’t have a transporter, we don’t have that service”.’
‘I said “what, seriously, Jaguar don’t have that service?” I felt I was being fobbed off.’
Mr Phillips claims he has faced a number of technical issues since splashing out almost £80,000 on the EV.
This included the car not fully charging or rapid charging, which meant he kept breaking down on the motorway. On one occasion, he had to fork out £350 for a taxi home to Merseyside after the car conked out in the Midlands.
Then last summer, with the car having only done 22,000 miles, the boot stopped working and slammed down on his wife’s head.
Mr Phillips took the car in for repairs and also told Jaguar that the carpets were wet inside and it was starting to smell. But he became embroiled in a row with the manufacturer over them trying to charge him £3,900.
He claimed they admitted to him that his issue was likely with how the windscreen had been fitted – and that three other vehicles were on the forecort for the same reason.
Mr Phillips said he told them: ‘This is not acceptable. You’ve told me there’s a fault with the windscreens. You told me there’s three of them sitting on your forecourt as we speak, waiting for new windscreens with the same issue.’
He also told them: ‘This is clearly a manufacturer’s problem and you can’t expect me to pay for it.’
Mr Phillips then opened a complaint and persevered with the car for a month or two but the problems persisted and Jaguar eventually covered the repair costs.
The repaired car was then returned to him but days later, he had the terrifying incident on New Year’s Eve.
Mr Phillips has been locked in a row with the car manufacturer since and claimed it told him that he had to get the faulty car to them himself, and it would cost £210 to diagnose because his warranty had expired after three years.
He told MailOnline: ‘I said, “Well, I’m gonna stop my payment. I’m not willing to pay for a vehicle that’s unfit for purpose. And I deem it as unsafe”.’
Mr Phillips claims that he was told his credit rating would be impacted by not paying so he contacted Blackhorse, who financed his Jaguar.
The Big Brother star says he feels he has been ‘horrifically ill-treated’ and has not had a car for around two months because it is still on their drive.
Last week, however, he received an email to say his car was ready for collection. But Mr Phillips and his partner say they will not be getting back in the vehicle.
‘My wife’s just like “we are not putting our children back into an I-Pace, full stop”. Even if they deliver it to my door, we’re not going to drive it. Take it back. So we’re done with Jaguar.’
A Jaguar Land Rover spokesman said: ‘We are taking these claims by Mr Phillips very seriously and are looking into his complaint. Our client experience as well as the safety of our clients and vehicles is JLR’s highest priority.’
Just on Tuesday, a driver who was trapped behind the wheel of another out-of-control Jaguar I-Pace revealed how he cheated death as his car accelerated up to 100mph on the busy M62 motorway without brakes.
Nathan Owen, 31, was on his way back from his first day at a new job when his 2019 electric car started malfunctioning, sparking a huge police operation to bring his car to a stop after 35 minutes of hell.
But he told how his car had also gone rogue on the motorway in December, this time reaching up to 120mph. He claims Jaguar handed him his car back 24 hours after he had taken it in to be looked at.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline about his latest run-in, the crisis support worker admitted: ‘In the back of my mind, I was thinking I’m going to end up crashing the car, I’m going to kill myself or I’m going to kill an innocent person on the roads.’
Mr Owen, originally from North Wales, added: ‘The car was in its own world – it just had no brakes. The worst thing about it is that it’s happened before.’
Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed it is investigating Tuesday’s incident as a priority.
In relation to this incident, a Jaguar Land Rover spokeswoman said: ‘Following the incident involving a Jaguar I-Pace on the M62 on the afternoon of March 6, we are looking into this matter with urgency.
‘A full review is underway to determine the cause of this incident, which is still yet to be established. The safety of our clients and vehicles is JLR’s highest priority.’
But Mr Owen and Mr Phillips were not alone in their experience.
Just last year, a terrified electric car driver revealed he was kidnapped by his runaway £30,000 MG ZS EV after the vehicle suffered a ‘catastrophic malfunction’ in a bizarre case which forced him to dodge red lights and roundabouts before calling police to ram it into their van.
Brian Morrison, 53, claims he was heading home from work at around 10pm on Sunday when his new Chinese-made fully electric car began driving itself at 30mph.
Unable to use the brakes, the Glaswegian – who runs his own social enterprise – called police who stopped the vehicle by allowing it to slowly crash into their van.
Drivers of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles have revealed their concerns over the electric vehicles appearing to accelerate without warning and suffer brake failures.
Several owners have reported terrifying experiences with the luxury £80,000 model in Britain which has seen them crash into houses or drive off car parks.
The most recent saw driver Nathan Owen behind the wheel of an out-of-control I-Pace which sped up to 100mph on the M62 in Greater Manchester without brakes.
Jaguar Land Rover is set to discontinue the car within months before it relaunches its EV lineup next year, having previously said the model would be improved.
Its boss Adrian Mardell revealed last August that the I-Pace is now mainly sold in the UK and mainland Europe to help ensure the firm can meet emissions targets.
This came after 26,000 I-Pace cars were recalled in the UK last June due to a risk of the high-voltage battery catching fire, with all vehicles given a software update.
JLR insists it always investigates incidents, with all probes into ‘uncommanded acceleration’ having confirmed that a driver had applied the accelerator pedal.
But the latest occurrence on the M62 on Wednesday raises fresh questions over the cars, with JLR saying it is now investigating what happened as a priority.
On that incident, JLR said: ‘Following the incident involving a Jaguar I-Pace on the M62 on the afternoon of March 6, we are looking into this matter with urgency.
‘A full review is underway to determine the cause of this incident, which is still yet to be established. The safety of our clients and vehicles is JLR’s highest priority.’
Just last week, MailOnline revealed car makers from Mercedes-Benz to Ford are delaying or scrapping further EVs as demand slows in Britain and abroad.
Last December, the I-Pace became the sixth biggest faller in value of any EV during 2023, with the average used price dropping 40 per cent from £52,060 to £31,050.
In relation to other incidents involving apparent acceleration without warning, JLR told MailOnline: ‘The safety of our clients and vehicles is JLR’s highest priority and any allegation we receive will always be thoroughly investigated. Where there has been an investigation into reports of un-commanded acceleration, they have been confirmed as driver commanded application of the accelerator pedal.’
Here are some of the acceleration incidents involving I-Pace cars in recent years:
EV ‘went rogue at 100mph on M62 then police rammed it’
A driver trapped behind the wheel of an out-of-control I-Pace cheated death as his car accelerated up to 100mph on the busy M62 motorway without brakes.
Nathan Owen, 31, was on his way back from his first day at a new job when his 2019 electric car started malfunctioning, sparking a huge police operation to bring his car to a stop on the M62 near Eccles in Greater Manchester after 35 minutes.
He claimed his car also went rogue last December, reaching 120mph – adding that Jaguar handed him his car back 24 hours after he had taken it in to be looked at.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline about his latest run-in, the crisis support worker admitted: ‘In the back of my mind, I was thinking I’m going to end up crashing the car, I’m going to kill myself or I’m going to kill an innocent person on the roads.’
Mr Owen, originally from North Wales, added: ‘The car was in its own world – it just had no brakes. The worst thing about it is that it’s happened before.’
Dramatic pictures show the black Jaguar, worth up to £80,000 when new, wedged in between two Matrix patrol cruisers from Merseyside Police on the eastbound carriageway between J11 for Birchwood and J12 for Eccles.
Jaguar Land Rover has confirmed it is investigating Wednesday’s incident as a priority.
Still shaken up by the terrifying incident, Mr Owen told how he was driving home from his new job working as a crisis support worker with children in Ormskirk, Liverpool, when he tried to overtake another car at around 2.30pm.
‘The car literally just started speeding up,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t press the brakes. The speed was going towards about 100mph in the high 90s, going to 100. I thought this was a bit wrong.
‘It came up on the dashboard saying there was a battery malfunction in my car. I kept trying to press the brakes but nothing was happening. So the next thing I thought I should do was call 999 and tell them what was happening.’
Mr Owen, who now lives in Bolton, Greater Manchester, then spent the next 35 minute surrounded by at least eight vehicles from Merseyside Police and Greater Manchester Police as they escorted him down the busy motorway.
The police officer he was on the phone to told him to move into the hard shoulder with his hazards on and to try and stay away from other people and other cars. Mr Owen was terrified as he kept having to weave in and out of the hard shoulder and slow lane to avoid turn offs and junctions.
It was at this point that a convoy of police cars were formed around Mr Owen’s car, in front, behind, and alongside him. He was told to make his way to the fast lane and follow the police.
Officers closed off two lanes of the four-lane motorway so that they could bring him to a stop as safely as possible and rescue him.
Mr Owen continued: ‘It was just scary I was just hitting the back of this police officer. I was hitting them at about 90mphs.
‘I was still talking to the operator, and I was worried. I was thinking I could potentially kill myself hitting this police officer at 90, or I could kill him if he loses control.’
He said that every time he was hitting the police vehicle, the car was swaying side to side.
‘The police officers said they never come across this before and coming down the hard shoulder and the police being behind me, it was like something out a film,’ he added.
‘It was horrible, I was in the fast lane, police car right in front of me, cars alongside me, normal passengers were just staring at me.
‘I felt like a criminal like in a big police chase, that’s how it felt. It felt like Grand Theft Auto.’
Mr Owen’s car was finally able to be brought to a stop when the miles on his electric car started running out.
He explained: ‘I had 10 miles, 5 miles and then it said on the screen zero miles stop the car and then the car started gently slowing down and going to zero.
‘The police were saying on the phone they are going to drive off a bit further and they will stop and then I can roll into the back of the police car and stop the vehicle.
‘I went into their car a few times, that was what was panicking me the most, I’ve never done that kind of before, I’ve never had a crash before. Hitting the back of the police car, I was panicking about myself and the police officer in case I hit him too hard or he loses control.’
When the car finally stopped, the police officers came to the side of his door but he said he was just ‘froze in the position of holding the steering wheel’. ‘The police were trying to talk to me but I just couldn’t do it,’ he added.
Mr Owen revealed to MailOnline that a similar incident happened to him on December 23.
He recalled: ‘I was driving at 3am in the morning after I finished one of my previous jobs, it happened exactly the same, I had no control of the vehicle. At the time, it did speed up to about 120mph, so it was going pretty quick.
‘I ended up phoning the police, the same how I did with this one. I managed to get the car into neutral after me pressing the buttons on the side of the I-Pace.
‘It didn’t work this time but last time I managed to get it in neutral so the car ended up stopping with the help of the police in front of me and behind me slowing down as well.
‘The car then got recovered to Jaguar Land Rover in Bolton and within 24 hours I got a phone call saying they looked over the car and the cars fine and I should pick it up.’
Mr Owen said he has also had another incident where his battery died while he was on the motorway last April – just a month after he bought the vehicle.
‘I was driving the vehicle and I had about 100 miles still left and I was literally just driving about 20 miles and I lost pretty much all that charge and car stopped in motorway and I got recovered – it took about 8 hours to recover the vehicle,’ he said.
‘Everything literally just shuts off. The wheels clamp up because its electric, I can’t take the handbrake off.’
Mr Owen said that he would definitely not be getting a Jaguar or an electric car again.
He added: ‘I just know I’ll never be getting into this car again. I just wish that I would have got help with it the first time I had the problems, and I didn’t just get given back the car.’
A Jaguar Land Rover spokeswoman said: ‘Following the incident involving a Jaguar I-Pace on the M62 on the afternoon of March 6, we are looking into this matter with urgency.
‘A full review is underway to determine the cause of this incident, which is still yet to be established. The safety of our clients and vehicles is JLR’s highest priority.’
MailOnline understands that while the review takes place, Mr Owen will be given a JLR vehicle to use in the meantime.
A Cheshire Constabulary spokesman told MailOnline: ‘At around 2.15pm on Wednesday 6 March, police were contacted by the driver of a Jaguar I-Pace who reported that there was a fault with his vehicle, and he was unable to brake.
‘The driver told police that he was travelling on the M58 in Merseyside.
‘Officers attended the scene and escorted the vehicle as it travelled onto the M57 and then M62 towards Manchester.
‘Once on the M62, officers from Cheshire Police, Merseyside Police and Greater Manchester worked together to stop all other traffic, they then used a police car to help bring the car to a stop at around 2.40pm, between junctions 10 and 11 of the M62 eastbound.’
Car zooms past pram before smashing into front of a house
In one of the most shocking incidents involving an I-Pace, CCTV footage showed one hurtling past a mother pushing a pram and ploughing into the front of a house.
Emergency services raced to the Manchester suburb of Moston last October after the £69,995 electric car zoomed across the road and smashed into the home.
Several houses had to be evacuated and Moston Road was closed after the collision – likened by neighbours to an ‘ earthquake ‘ – caused a suspected gas leak.
Video published at the time revealed the property’s garden wall was destroyed and the front window was shattered from the impact of the crash.
One neighbour said: ‘There was a huge bang, and everything shook. It was like an earthquake. I thought it was an earthquake. Then the police came pretty quickly.’
Another said: ‘I don’t get how it happened. Everyone was lucky. Imagine them in the house, what they would’ve thought. They must’ve just been like ‘what the f***?”
Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service were called amid concerns over a gas leak, which was then isolated. Greater Manchester Police said no arrests were made.
EV ‘suddenly went off like a rocket’ and crashed into cars
A driver called Julie posted on a Jaguar I-Pace forum that she was left ‘unnerved’ after her EV ‘suddenly went off like a rocket’ in the Lancashire village of Longton.
She said the airbags were activated after she crashed into the back of a parked Mercedes as she pulled up to her son’s house, in an undisclosed location.
The woman wrote in December 2021: ‘It ploughed into a Porsche in front of me that went into a Volkswagen that pushed a lamp post over.
‘Then I swerved across the road into a wall and ended up on top of the wall on a fence. Thank God there was nobody walking past or sat in the cars. The airbags activated and I opened my door and got out uninjured.
‘What on earth happened? I’m 62 years old and have been driving safely since I was 17 and own two companies with numerous vehicles. No way would I have put my foot on the accelerator by mistake.’
When she slammed on the brakes, she said ‘the car kept accelerating anyway and was unstoppable until it crashed’. She said she was considering returning to a diesel.
Car ‘accelerated suddenly while trying to park’
Neil Turner said his father Colin suffered two close calls in his I-Pace after it accelerated suddenly while he was trying to park in November 2019.
In footage of the near-collision, the car suddenly takes off and almost collides with a flagpole before Colin manages to slam on the brakes.
The car was left with a small scratch on its front bumper while the wheels left two deep grooves in nearby grass after it shot forward at high speed.
‘The car tried to accelerate by itself and was stopped just in time before doing any damage,’ Mr Turner told MailOnline.
‘We reported it to Jaguar, who said nothing was wrong with the car. It did it again while I was driving it and we decided to sell it not long afterwards.
‘I have the original CCTV footage of it accelerating while the brakes were on, almost hitting the flagpole – you can see the car trying to suddenly launch.
‘Fortunately he was quick on the brakes. When it happened to me in a car park I was convinced it was faulty.’
Mr Turner said Jaguar had taken the car in for assessment but that technicians, as well as roadside assistance, were unable to replicate the fault.
In an email exchange with Jaguar’s customer service team, Mr Turner wrote that there had been two occasions ‘whereby the vehicle launched itself dangerously’.
‘I decided not to drive the car from 14 to 17 November in case of reoccurrence at say a junction or a zebra crossing,’ he wrote in an email to customer service.
‘Given that I have irrefutable CCTV proof, what am I to do? Please treat this matter as urgent, do I wait at home, miss work, until someone takes an interest or what?’
Car ‘written off after being driven into house opposite’
One forum user called Dave said his wife had been left ‘confused’ after their I-Pace was driven into the house opposite them and had to be written off.
‘My wife was driving our I-Pace last month and had an almost identical incident that resulting in the car being written off after being driven into the house opposite,’ the man wrote.
‘Again no one harmed thank goodness, but she would love to understand exactly what happened.’
Driver ‘had no control over speed or braking’
Patrick Macnamara told MailOnline about an accident that his parents’ friends had in their I-Pace in South London.
The couple were forced to part ways with the luxury vehicle after it accelerated into a wall at high speed. ‘The driver had no control over speed or braking,’ he said.
‘They initially began proceedings against Jaguar but then withdrew them due to their age and the cost etc.
‘I believe the car was left in situ where it crashed pending case and examination by an independent assessment.’
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
