Non-driver spared jail after low-speed police chase

9:30am Monday 26th May 2008

A TEENAGER who cannot drive hijacked a car and led police on a lowspeed chase because he could not get out of first gear, a court was told.

Youth worker Andrew Parkinson, 18, and an unnamed accomplice took the Citroen Saxo from Christopher Smith after telling him they had a gun.

The terrified teenager leapt from his car fearing he would be shot, before Parkinson tried to drive it away - only to repeatedly stall the hatchback.

Parkinson finally started the car but his accomplice "lost his nerve"

and jumped out and ran off, Ian West, prosecuting, told Teesside Crown Court.

Mr Smith - who had been waiting outside a cinema in Middlesbrough for his girlfriend - borrowed a mobile phone from a passer-by and called police.

The car was spotted by officers in Pallister Avenue and they chased Parkinson a short distance before he jumped out of the vehicle.

The court was told that £450 damage had been caused to the car, but Mr Smith had not been able to afford the repairs and had had to sell it at a loss.

Kieran Rainey, mitigating, said Parkinson's mother had died when he was 13 because of alcohol abuse and his father also had drink problems.

As a result, said Mr Rainey, Parkinson very rarely drinks, but had consumed four-and-a-half pints on the evening of the incident.

"He took part in something that he would otherwise never have got involved in," said Mr Rainey.

"He wants to apologise to Mr Smith, to the police and to the court."

He said Parkinson was a "valued"

junior leader at Thorntree Youth and Community Centre, in Middlesbrough, and provided the court with a reference from a manager.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Peter Fox, said the letter from Linda Cunningham had saved Parkinson from prison.

"Anyone - even with a good character - who hijacks another person's car, especially when they threaten that person that they have a gun, should expect to go straight to prison," said the judge.

"The only question is whether this can be regarded as an isolated instance, so completely unique in the whole of your life, so that your good character can permit this court to suspend the inevitable custodial sentence."

Parkinson, of The Greenway, Middlesbrough, was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with probation supervision.

He was also banned from driving for two years, ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work for the community and observe a six-month electronic tag curfew.

Parkinson admitted aggravated vehicle taking, affray, driving with excess alcohol and driving without insurance on November 12 last year.

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