Three men have admitted going equipped for theft with items which were hurled from a speeding car during a police pursuit near Penrith.
Carlisle Magistrates’ Court was told how two constables were on patrol on the A6 near the town just after midnight on December 9 2020. They were aware of previous incidents in which the curtain sides of HGVs parked in laybys had been slashed and items stolen.
A Vauxhall Insignia was spotted parked with its lights on behind an HGV with a curtain-sided trailer. As officers pulled up, the Vauxhall drove off at speed. Items were seen to be thrown from the vehicle.
Police activated blue lights and sirens but the Vauxhall driver failed to stop. “It travelled through Penrith at very high speed,” said prosecutor Pam Ward.
Other police officers helped to halt the vehicle, which contained four men. Pairs of gloves were recovered during a search of the car, which was fitted with number plates covered in a film coating in a bid to avoid being caught on camera.
An angle grinder and phone were found in the Inglewood Road area on the outskirts of Penrith having been hurled from the moving Vauxhall during the incident.
At the magistrates’ court this morning, 30-year-old Grant Bower, Thomas Jason Law, 29, and 26-year-old Carlton Jack Watson admitted a charge of going equipped for theft with the gloves, angle grinder and the film-covered plates.
Magistrates concluded the case fell outside their jurisdiction and committed it to Carlisle Crown Court for sentence. Bower, of Radulf Gardens, Liversedge; Law, of Peel Street, Heckmondwike; and Watson, of Millers Croft, Batley, all Kirklees, West Yorkshire, are due to appear in front of a judge on November 1. They were granted unconditional bail in the meantime.
The court heard Bower and Law had received suspended sentences from a judge at Carlisle Crown Court in February this year after admitting going equipped for theft in March 2020.
The pair had been in a car travelling at around 90mph during a police pursuit on the A66 between Penrith and Appleby at around midnight. On that occasion, gloves, an angle grinder and a phone had been tossed from the vehicle during the chase which was ended when a stinger was deployed.
- Magistrates adjourned the case of a fourth man charged with going equipped for theft in December 2020, until later this month.
