A man who believed that his health had been damaged by mobile phone signals led a convoy of police cars and onlookers across western suburbs of Sydney as he used a 15-tonne armoured personnel carrier (APC) to flatten seven phone towers.

John Patterson, a former employee of Telstra, Australia’s largest telecommunications company, took the former British Army Trojan APC from its owner’s tow company in western Sydney.

He drove the Rolls-Royce-powered vehicle – which resembles a tracked tank and has a replica cannon – on a rampage across six suburbs, which left a large part of Sydney temporarily without a mobile-phone signal.

After he was first spotted attacking an electricity sub-station, the convoy of vehicles following his odyssey grew to include more than 20 police cars. Some onlookers urged on the 40-year-old APC in its two-hour rampage.

The driver was caught and arrested at 4am when the vehicle stalled as he attempted to bring down his seventh mobile phone tower in the western Sydney suburb of Dean Park.

Police said that they had no option but to tail the APC in a low-speed pursuit as they were powerless to bring it to a halt as it travelled at its maximum speed of 52km/h (32mph).

Police vehicles were forced into evasive action several times when the driver swung the 17ft (5 metre) vehicle toward them. The APC rammed a police car at one point during the chase, after officers confronted it as it emerged from a hospital car park.

At times Mr Patterson taunted the police by leaning out of the vehicle’s window and waving at officers and bystanders. After he stalled while lining up to ram his seventh tower, Mr Patterson was arrested and carried away by police, who used pepper spray to subdue him.

Mr Patterson had worked until recently for the tow company that owned the APC. Greg Morris, the owner, said that Mr Patterson had helped to restore and maintain the vehicle, which he said he had obtained from the British Army.

He said that Mr Patterson, 45, a divorced father, had been a good employee who was bitter about his treatment at the hands of his former employer, Telstra.

“He used to work for Telstra and he told us he was going through a medical claim for his head injury,” Mr Morris said.

“He said something about the radiation from the mobile phone towers as having been a cause of it,” he added.

“He worked on the tank, doing a lot of wiring and putting the engine in.”

Mr Morris described Mr Patterson as “a great guy”, who had resigned as his employee just before last Christmas. The pair had stayed in touch. Mr Morris said: “The problem he had wasn’t with me. It’s just that the tank was what he needed to do what he has done.” He added that Mr Patterson believed that during his time working in telecommunications that signals from mobile phones had “harmed his head”.

A magistrate yesterday refused to grant bail to Mr Patterson, who has been charged with stealing, predatory driving and driving in a dangerous manner.

The magistrate ordered that Mr Patterson should receive a psychiatric assessment.

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