An 18-year-old joyrider wrote off a “cherished” sports car after police let him off for a string of crimes with eight cautions – including burglary, threatening behaviour and theft.
Robert Ellis, from Longbenton near Newcastle, stole the BMW M Sport from a driveway in Jesmond Park West on March 5, after noticing its keys had been left inside.
He caused £7,000 worth of damage to the victim’s driveway gates in the process as he forced them to open the wrong way.
The car which had significant sentimental value was later found crashed into a traffic light and written off in Newcastle’s Four Lane Ends sitting partially on top of the railings of a pedestrian crossing.
Following the crash three people were seen running from the car, with Ellis identified from blood on its steering wheel.
It came after he had been “astonishingly” cautioned by “busy” Northumbria Police eight times for crimes including burglary, criminal damage, threatening behaviour, shoplifting, attempted theft, theft from motor vehicle and possessing cannabis.
Having turned 18, the judge at Newcastle Crown Court told him he had reached “big boy’s court” and told him he had got away with a “remarkable” amount of offending given he had no criminal convictions on his record.
Judge Amanda Rippon said: “He has had more cautions than anyone has a right to.
“I know the police are busy, but he has got away with a remarkable amount of serious crime before finding himself in the big boy’s court, jumping over the youth court.”
Referring to a pre-sentence report, Judge Rippon said there “was not much that made me smile” about it, adding: “He says the right things but the probation officer correctly identifies an attitude which no doubt bears out because of the way he was dealt with, making him think he has got away with criminal offences.
“Just because the police have given him a number of cautions doesn’t mean he can go on like Bonnie and Clyde, committing offences until he is shot.
“I can give him a different experience of the justice system which would mature him quite quickly.”
Prosecutor Joe Culley added: “He has been dealt with previously with generosity.”
Judge Rippon told him: “I dread to think what that journey looked like if I could watch it. I dread to think what speed you got up to, with no driving licence and no insurance.
“The extraordinary ego of you, thinking you could drive such a powerful sports car, off your face, without consequences. I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve had young men before me sobbing, not because they are going to prison but because they have killed their best friend or girlfriend or both of them or someone walking across the road.
“After crashing, you ran away, like the little boy you are. You deserve to go to prison. At least then the public would not have to worry about you on the roads.
“But I’m going to give you a chance. One chance. I’m only giving it to you because you are 18 and you have not been convicted of any offences, astonishingly, before.”
The judge told him that if he committed any further offences in the next two years or “dares to get behind the wheel of a car”, she would lock him up.
Ellis, of Kingsdale Road, Longbenton, North Tyneside, pleaded guilty to aggravated taking without consent, criminal damage, failing to stop after an accident, having no insurance and having no licence and was sentenced to 12 months suspended for two years with 100 hours unpaid work.
He was also given an alcohol abstinence monitoring requirement – meaning he has to wear a tag which will reveal if he has consumed alcohol – and banned from driving for 18 months.
Matthew Purves, defending, said Ellis is now in employment, is not taking drugs or drinking alcohol and has moved away from the area where he was at the time and is now living with his grandmother.
