A CAREER burglar led the police on ‘a hair-raising chase’ as he tried to escape after abandoning a safe he had taken during a house burglary in a south Warwickshire village.
Graham Stevenson had been forced to flee empty-handed when he was challenged by a neighbour in the village of Cherington.
And during the chase that followed he drove at speeds of up to 100mph and sped through the centre of Wellesbourne, a judge at Warwick Crown Court has heard.
The 33-year-old, of Bagthorpe Close, Nottingham, was jailed for four years and four months after pleading guilty to burglary, dangerous driving and possessing cannabis.
Prosecutor Lee Egan said that at 4.30pm on Sunday September 2, a woman saw a man jumping into the back garden of her neighbour’s home in Cherington, near Shipston.
Knowing the family were away, she immediately called the police as her husband then heard the sound of breaking glass.
Her husband went outside and challenged Stevenson as he emerged from the house carrying a safe, telling him the police had been called and were on their way.
Abandoning the safe, Stevenson ran from the garden and across a field to where he had left his car, and drove off.
Police were quickly on the scene quickly and with the help of the police helicopter, picked up Stevenson’s Ford Focus as it was heading north on the A429, and gave chase.
Eventually other officers managed to put down a stinger device, and after Stevenson had driven over it, they boxed him in an brought him to a stop.
When he was arrested Stevenson, who had a large number of convictions for burglaries going back to 1996, had a small bag of herbal cannabis on him.
Richard Posner, defending, said Stevenson had been doing well after being released from prison in September 2015, but had fallen in with ‘bad company’ and had started using cannabis again which saw him walk out of his job, and end up in debt.
Deputy Judge Phillip Wassal, who also disqualified Stevenson from from driving for five years, told him: “You fled from the scene and got into your car and engaged in a hair-raising course of driving.
“This is all the more sad because following a career of burglary, you seemed to have broken the habit, and seemed to have got yourself a really good job.
