Thief crashed stolen Audi into lorry after 130mph police chase
A man from Wolverhampton broke both of his legs, his arm and several ribs when he smashed the stolen car he was driving into the side of an HGV as he tried to escape from the police.
Burglar Edward Wiseman had stolen the Audi A1, in which he reached speeds of up to 130mph on the M6, following a break-in at the owner’s home in the Chapel Ash area.
Wiseman, aged 20, of Merrivale Street West, was jailed for three years and eight months after pleading guilty at Warwick Crown Court to burglary, theft and dangerous driving.
Prosecutor Simon Foster said on September 15 a man was woken by a noise and a light outside the bedroom at his home in St Mark's Road, Chapel Ash, at 5.30am.
Downstairs he found the front door was open, keys had been taken from a box in the hallway, together with bank cards from his coat, and his daughter's Audi A1 had gone from outside.
He called the police, and CCTV from a nearby premises showed Wiseman entering and leaving the house before driving off in the Audi.
The car’s route was tracked to the M5/M6 interchange where officers were waiting to intercept it.
Weaving
Because of roadworks the speed limit was 60mph – but when the officers spotted the Audi it was doing in excess of 100.
As the police followed the Audi and tried to get it to stop as it headed southbound on the M6, it reached 120mph, weaving across lanes to get past other traffic.
After hitting 130mph, Wiseman slowed to 117, narrowly missing a box van, as he got to more roadworks with a 50mph limit.
Then at junction 3, at the last moment he veered across from the outside lane onto the slip road leading to the A444 at 100mph.
Ignoring the red light at the end of the slip road, he ploughed into the side of an Eddie Stobart HGV at high speed.
"Had it been a small vehicle rather than an HGV, the consequences would have been even worse," said Mr Foster.
"As it was, the front of the Audi was completely destroyed and the defendant was trapped inside, going in and out of consciousness.
"Flames began to come from the front of the vehicle, but the officers were able to put them out and pull him out."
Wiseman, who had previous convictions for robbery and burglary and was on licence from prison at the time, had suffered two broken legs, a broken arm, several broken ribs and a punctured lung in the crash.
Profoundly
His barrister Andrew Tucker said: “The experience of the head-on collision at something between 70 and 100 is something that has affected him very profoundly.”
Judge Anthony Potter queried: “Does he have any appreciation of how close he came to killing other people? That’s what is of concern to me."
Mr Tucker added: “He realises how close to death he came, and his attitude to life has changed. He knows he seriously needs to mend his ways."
Jailing Wiseman and banning him from driving for four years and eight months, Judge Potter told him: “It is in many respects remarkable you are present to be sentenced, given what I’ve been told about the crash and the driving you engaged in.
"I have to sentence you for that driving and for the fact that you had entered someone else’s house to steal the vehicle you ultimately wrote off.
"It is pure luck it was an HGV you collided with, not a car in which you would clearly have killed the occupants.
"It is possible the consequences of the crash may bring home to you the folly of the way you have been behaving."
