Passenger of stolen car locked up after 90mph police chase in Hartlepool

Dylan Turner, 19, and his girlfriend were found inside a Fiat 500 that had been stolen the previous day after it crashed on Hart Lane on October 16 last year.

Two other passengers aged 17 were also found in the car by police while the driver fled and was never caught.

Teesside Crown Court was told a chase started when the Fiat, which had been stolen from Whitworth Gardens, was spotted on Merlin Way at Bishop Cuthbert by police at around 10.30pm.

Ashleigh Leach, prosecuting, said: “A pursuit ensued where the driver squeezed past bollard in an attempt to lose the officers and travelled along Hart Lane and Jesmond Gardens where it reached speeds of 90mph in a 30mph zone.

“During this pursuit one of the occupants shone a green coloured laser into the PC’s vehicle in an attempt to blind him.”

The car circled back to the area and went through a roundabout at the junction of Dunston Road and Hart Lane at 70mph.

The driver lost control when exiting onto Hart Lane and the vehicle launched into the air and crashed into roadside furniture before coming to a stop opposite Clover Drive.After being granted bail, Turner went on to steal a woman’s jacket and bag from a red Kia in Sedgewick Close on March 9, and stole a Peugeot motorbike from Miers Avenue on April 3.

He pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking, theft from a motor vehicle and theft before the magistrates.

In a victim impact statement, the owner of the Fiat, a women suffering with cancer, said the incident had left her feeling unsafe in her own home and she has had to buy a replacement vehicle.

Andew Teate, defending, said in mitigation that Turner, who has 29 offences on his record, was not the driver of the Fiat and played no part in its theft or the shining of the laser.

Judge Stephen Ashurst sentenced Turner, of Garside Drive, Hartlepool, to 12 months youth detention and disqualified him from driving for 18 months.

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