UK man jailed for stealing ambulance with elderly patient inside
A 32-year-old man who hijacked an ambulance containing an elderly patient and paramedic outside a UK hospital has been sentenced to 21 months in prison.
A 32-year-old man who stole an ambulance containing an elderly patient and medical staff from outside a hospital in Stoke-on-Trent has been sentenced to 21 months' imprisonment.
Marshall Leese seized the ambulance outside the Royal Stoke University Hospital on 25 March while the driver had briefly stepped inside with the engine kept running. Despite a paramedic shouting from the rear compartment for him to stop, Leese continued driving for two miles with the paramedic, a vulnerable elderly patient, and a carer trapped inside.
He eventually abandoned the vehicle at a petrol station along the A34 in Newcastle-under-Lyme, where police tracking dogs discovered him hiding nearby. Recorder Ben Williams KC ruled that Leese had committed false imprisonment and aggravated vehicle taking by intentionally refusing to stop after learning passengers were onboard.
Source: BBC News Photo: rawpixel (CC0)
