A man who stole an NHS ambulance from outside a hospital while an elderly patient and a paramedic were still inside has been jailed for 21 months. Marshall Leese, 32, admitted false imprisonment and aggravated vehicle taking at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court on Tuesday.
Leese, of Hanley, Staffordshire, took the ambulance from outside the Royal Stoke University Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent on 25th March. He sped through red lights while being chased by police. The court heard that had the vehicle crashed, the patient would have died.
Incident details
Leese eventually stopped at a petrol station on the A34 in Newcastle-under-Lyme and fled, but was found hiding nearby by a police sniffer dog. Judge Recorder Ben Williams KC told Leese that while the ambulance driver had taken the keys into the hospital with him, the vehicle was in a mode enabling the engine to still run while his colleague treated their patient in the back.
Judge Williams said: "The driver had left it in a mode which meant it still was running while he went inside... leaving his colleague in the back with an elderly patient and that gentleman's carer."
Leese had been "ushered out" of the driver's seat of a different ambulance by paramedics moments before he drove off in the second one, the court heard. Footage played in court showed Leese getting into the Fiat Ducato and driving away. As he drove off, the paramedic leaned into the front compartment and shouted at Leese to stop.
Court proceedings
"When you got behind the wheel and decided to keep going, once he'd made his presence known, you in terms committed the offence of false imprisonment intentionally although you may not have thought about it in that way," Williams told the defendant. The paramedic was "terrified" and grabbed a metal pole which he threatened to hit Leese with, the judge said. The patient, who was in his 80s and on blood thinners, was being treated for a head injury at the time.
Jennifer Devans-Tamakloe, defending, said he led an "extraordinarily difficult and chaotic lifestyle", adding: "He has been abusing alcohol and drugs for a significant length of time."
Aftermath and response
West Midlands Ambulance Service said a second ambulance was sent to recover the patient and take them back to hospital. Staffordshire Police said after ditching the stolen ambulance, Leese ran off into the nearby woodland but was found by police dog Foxy and bitten on the hand when he failed to comply with instructions.
West Midlands Ambulance Service welcomed the sentencing, saying it was "an incredibly dangerous and reckless act". They added: "[Leese's] actions put the safety of those on board, the public and other road users at risk, which could have resulted in a far more serious situation. In addition, it also took a vital emergency vehicle away from patients who may desperately have needed it."
Detective Constable Lili Rose Gregory, of Staffordshire Police, said: "This was a particularly dangerous incident which could have ended very differently if it wasn’t for the quick actions of officers to apprehend Leese. I’m pleased we’ve been able to build all of the evidence needed to secure his conviction, despite his earlier attempts to say he’d done nothing wrong."
