Prolific vehicle thief jailed after 10-hour coach joyride and crime spree across Lancashire and Scotland
A prolific vehicle thief who went on a 10-hour joyride in a stolen coach has been jailed by a judge in Preston.
Daniel Stewart was said to have driven off in the bus from a railway station in the London area before moving up to Lancashire.
Having set up home at a caravan site near Garstang, the 24-year-old stole a wagon from a local engineering company compound and smashed through the gates before driving to Scotland to visit relatives.
Stewart, who had only just been released from prison after serving a two-year sentence for similar offences in Essex, was jailed for 28 months by Judge Richard Gioserano after pleading guilty to a total of 11 charges.
The city’s Crown Court was told that when the unemployed scrapyard worker was finally arrested, he asked a police custody sergeant if he wanted to buy a coach.
“I have been driving it for 10 hours,” he told the officer. “I mean, who leaves the doors open and the keys in the ignition and doesn’t expect to be robbed?”
Stewart’s latest crime spree began in the south of England when he stole the coach. He moved to Lancashire and then broke into the compound of Leach Structural Steelwork in Claughton-on-Brock near Garstang.
The court was told he spent an hour driving several vehicles around the site before reversing a Ford wagon through the gates and then smashing through the security barrier, causing extensive damage.
The £50,000 wagon contained a tracker device and signals were picked up in Morecambe, Milnthorpe, Grange-over-Sands and eventually Scotland.
Damage to the gate came to £5,000 and £700 for the barrier. The wagon also sustained some damage from collisions with a central crash barrier and a car.
When he returned from Scotland, he went back to the Leach compound for a second time and stole the car of an employee, reaching through the window of a building and grabbing the keys.
He drove it out of the car park and again smashed through the gates, which had only just been repaired after his first breakout.
He drove into a nearby petrol filling station and left without paying for more than £40 of fuel. His girlfriend was in the car with him.
Police recognised him from CCTV pictures and stopped him, where he tested positive for cannabis in a roadside drug swipe. But when he reached the police station under arrest, he refused to take an evidential test despite being asked several times.
A director of the engineering firm where he had smashed the gates and barrier twice told officers: “It’s not fair our business is being targeted in this way. Our property has been damaged twice now and I would like to be compensated for it.”
The owner of the stolen car was without his vehicle for a week and said the theft had had an impact on his life.
The court was told that Stewart had been jailed for two years at Ipswich Crown Court last year for stealing a Mercedes car from a car wash near Colchester. He had led traffic officers, as well as the Metropolitan Police helicopter, on a chase for almost an hour, reaching speeds of up to 110mph from Essex into London.
That arrest had come just one day after he had been released from a previous prison sentence for burglary and theft. It was the 13th time he had been convicted.
At his last trial in November, his lawyer told a judge that spending time in prison had been a “wake-up call” for him. “He saw some difficult things during the time he has been in custody. He (now) wants to move forward with his life and get back on track.”
But, having been released from jail on May 28 this year, he was back offending within three days.
Stewart’s defence barrister argued that he had had a difficult childhood and was diagnosed with ADHD aged about eight.
Judge Gioserano told him that, having been released from prison in May, he had gone straight back to offending.
He had stolen two vehicles while he was banned from driving and had no insurance.
He had been arrested in Edinburgh, but that hadn’t put him off. He returned to the engineering company compound “for a second time a few weeks later and helped yourself to another vehicle.
“You smashed through the barrier that was a replacement for the one you damaged the first time,” he said. “I can understand why the people at this engineering works think they are being targeted by you.”
He sentenced him to a total of 28 months for two counts of burglary, two of theft of motor vehicles, two of using vehicles without insurance, two of driving while disqualified, one of making off without paying for fuel, one of failing to provide a specimen for a drug test and one of aggravated vehicle taking.
Judge Gioserano also banned Stewart from driving for 42 months and ordered him to take an extended driving test before he is allowed behind the wheel in future.