South Tyneside driver in head-on crash after stealing girlfriend's car and fleeing police now faces jail
Offender’s partner sent text messages pleading with him to return her car.
A South Tyneside danger driver sped from police after stealing his girlfriend’s car but came to a terrifying halt when he smashed head on into another vehicle, a court heard.
Jack Crookes, 24, pinched the Suzuki and accelerated off into the night without lights and only stopped when he crashed in or around Newcastle Road at Simonside.
Crookes, of Whitfield Villas, Tyne Dock, not only failed to stop for traffic police but also for his partner who pleaded with him in messages to bring his antics to a halt, prosecutor John Garside said.
In desperation at around 11.30pm on Saturday, October 24, she wrote, ‘Bring the car so I can go to bed’, before adding, ‘Bring the car back, I’m begging you, I can’t keep doing it’.
She notified police after they informed her they had taken Crookes to hospital, South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court was told.
While there, the first-time offender refused to provide a sample of one of blood or breath to test if he was drunk or had taken drugs.
District Judge Zoe Passfield adjourned Crookes’ case for reports and granted him unconditional bail to be sentenced at Newcastle Crown Court, where he could be jailed, on Tuesday, December 8.
Mr Garside said: “At approximately 11.30pm, police were on mobile patrol on Green Lane when their attention was drawn to the defendant’s vehicle as it passed on a roundabout at speed with no lights.
“They followed onto Green Lane and at speed activated their lights and sirens, but the vehicle failed to stop.
“It briefly came to a stop but it then moved off and has then gone around a roundabout the wrong way.
“He had a head-on collision with another vehicle. The defendant was detained.
“They spoke to the defendant’s partner, who confirmed that she had sent messages to him saying ‘bring the car so I can go to bed’, and ‘bring the car back, I’m begging you, I can’t keep doing it’.
“He was taken to hospital after the incident and while there, he has failed to provide a sample for analysis.”
Crookes, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving, failing to provide a sample for analysis and taking a vehicle without consent.
He also admitted driving without a licence, driving without insurance and failing to stop for police.
Sophie Allinson-Howells, defending, agreed that sentencing should be at the crown court and said only there was nothing else she could add to the proceedings.
After ordering a report, Judge Passfield also handed Crookes an interim driving ban, the full length of which will be decided when he is sentenced next month.
She told him: “You will be given full credit for pleading guilty at the first hearing and I note that you have no previous convictions and that all goes in your favour, but this combination of offences is too serious for this court.”