Leon Jones, 20, of Ford Way in Woodchurch, has been jailed for five years and 10 months after admitting causing death by dangerous driving and arson. He left his friend Spencer Crofts dead aged 17 after their bikes collided head-on while they were "riding competitively against one another" on Hoole Road in Woodchurch, Wirral, on November 30 2024.
Jones, then 18, was also left fighting for life with serious head injuries and a compound leg fracture. Less than two years later, he set fire to a mobility scooter beneath the window of a house, with a bedbound terminally ill woman sleeping directly on the other side of the wall.
Crash details
Liverpool Crown Court heard that Jones was riding his Sur-Ron e-bike along the route, which was "busy with traffic and pedestrians visiting local shops", shortly before 6.30pm. Mr Crofts was heading in the opposite direction on his motorcycle when both vehicles collided. The two teens had been "pulling prolonged wheelies in the area for some time prior" and had been doing so as they veered towards one another immediately before the crash.
Henry Riding, prosecuting, described how CCTV footage captured similar "dangerous and antisocial" driving along the same stretch of road for around twenty minutes beforehand, with neither rider having their headlights illuminated or wearing helmets or protective clothing in the dark and wet conditions. The wheels of both bikes were estimated to have returned to the ground "about a second before impact".
Jones was calculated to have been travelling at between 27 and 33mph at the time of the collision on the 20mph road, with Mr Crofts at a "broadly similar speed". Mr Riding added that a group of teenage youths, some clearly associates of the defendant, gathered to watch and were cheering, while younger children were outside shops on the other side of the road. After the crash, some of the older youths dragged Jones to the pavement, removed both bikes and themselves from the scene, and none provided any assistance to the police.
Passing motorists stopped to help both casualties. Mr Crofts died at the scene, with his cause of death given as blunt force head injuries. The motorcycle was later recovered by police in an "unroadworthy" state, but the e-bike ridden by Jones was never found.
Arson attack
Jones also fell to be sentenced for an arson attack on Shortfield Road in Upton in the early hours of June 28 this year. A homeowner spotted him "acting suspiciously" outside her home shortly before 3.30am via Ring doorbell footage. Police found him crouched beside a mobility scooter which was on fire, parked "within inches" of the front window of another property.
Officers extinguished the blaze using fire extinguishers, and a white carrier bag containing two screwdrivers and a hammer was found nearby. Jones was initially arrested on suspicion of going equipped for theft, at which stage he said he was "trying to get a wire off the ignition for a project". Police entered the home and found a "bedridden" and terminally ill woman in a bed "immediately adjacent" to the area where the fire had been started.
Further detained on suspicion of arson, Jones, later found in possession of a cigarette lighter, said: "I know what I've done. It's disgusting. I've done it." In interview, he said he had used the lighter to melt plastic from the scooter's ignition to take a wire, and that he had not intended to start the fire but had "panicked" and "tried to put it out by whacking it with his top". He reported the fire then "got bigger" as police arrived, and said he would have "s*** himself and run away" if officers had not attended. He was "shocked" upon learning of the female occupant, adding: "She could have passed away. Anything could have happened."
Victim impact and sentencing
The fire caused around £2,000 in damage. The husband of the terminally ill woman, the user of the mobility scooter, said in a statement: "I no longer feel safe in my home. Before the incident, I would regularly use the scooter to go out with my dog. I feel unable to go out as I once did. I'm frightened of being recognised on the estate. I don't leave my home unless absolutely necessary. I'm always looking out of the window, especially at night. If my dog barks, I immediately become concerned. I find it difficult to become relaxed and feel anxious most of the time. I find myself becoming nervous around groups of young people. I fear there may be reprisals. I don't know how I would have got her out of the property if the fire spread to my house. I dread to think what could have happened. Since the incident, I feel unable to leave my wife at home alone as I fear something else might happen. I don't go out as much as I used to. I often have a voice in the back of my mind telling me not to leave the house as something might happen. I'm fearful he may seek reprisals against me or my wife, and the prospect of him being nearby makes me feel unsafe. It's affected my confidence, independence and quality of life."
Louise McCloskey, defending, said of the fatal crash: "That young person was one of this defendant's best friends. As result of that incident, he has life changing and significant and serious ongoing injuries which have required medical treatment and surgical intervention. They will be ongoing, essentially, for the rest of his life." She noted he requires significant support and is considered "highly vulnerable in all aspects", but has secured a role cleaning in custody and appears to have the support required.
Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland KC said: "You were only 18 at the time. It was on the 30th of November 2024. You and your very good friend Spencer Crofts were driving your motorbikes, one of them a Sur-Ron, neither of them suitable for use in that way, no lights, no helmets, no protective clothing, up and down a public road by a precinct of shops on the Woodchurch estate. There was a clump of other young men egging you all on and acting as spectators. Nothing good can be said about them. Even as you were injured on the road and your friend was dying, their principle motivation was to get the motorbikes out of the way, presumably to save their own skins. It was disgraceful behaviour by them. This sort of behaviour is a positive menace, not only in Woodchurch but other places. Because of you not wearing a helmet and no protective clothing, it is commensurately more difficult for the police to intervene. It is only hoped some method is to be found that these bikes can be immediately confiscated and destroyed. No good comes of them. You and Spencer were riding competitively against other other, pulling prolonged wheelies. Sadly, perhaps inevitably, you crashed into each other. You were seriously injured, and Spencer is dead. The average speed on that greasy, wet road surface was about 30mph. It was beyond your ability to control. The outcome is the dreadful business that we have in front of us today. Also, I have to sentence you for deliberately burning another motor scooter. Inside the house was his wife, who was dying. You perhaps did not know that, but the consequences of the arson which you committed carried with it a very high risk of serious outcome, even worse than there has been. Having said those things, you were and you remain an immature person with no great ability to understand the consequences of your actions. There is a significant body of medical material, especially related to your current condition, acquired during the fatal collision, which means that any sentence I pass will be more onerous for you."
Jones will be banned from driving for five years upon his release and must pass an extended retest before being allowed back on the roads. He was also handed a restraining order banning him from contacting the victim of the arson for 10 years.
