ARMED police chased a member of a suspected drugs gang through gardens after a car crash, a court heard.

PC Neil Rowland and his colleague, Insp Noel O’Hara, were called to provide armed response for an operation to arrest members of the “Bush Boys” drugs gang, on November 27 last year.

The officer told Basildon Crown Court he tailed a Mercedes down the A13 to Shadwell, in East London, where it ploughed into a house.A suspect fled from the car into gardens.

PC Rowland said he gave chase, but lost him when he ran into a block of flats, in Cable Street.

He returned to the suspect’s car, where officers from the Metropolitan Police had arrived.

The incident came a day after an undercover cop, known as Deano, was forced to jump for his life from the second-floor window of a Basildon flat after being exposed by members of the Bush Boys, the court was told.

The gang, which derives its name from Shepherds Bush, West London, allegedly peddled crack cocaine around Basildon.

Members are accused of targeting drug addicts and taking over their homes to use as a base to sell drugs in exchange for feeding their victims’ habits.

In a bid to crack the gang, undercover police officers posed as drug addicts.

But the court heard that in November things went wrong when the officer known as Deano to the gang was confronted by members and subjected to a violent interrogation.

The trial continues.