No jail for tearaway after two Transit van police chases
A 22-year-old tearaway caught in two stolen Ford Transit vans in as many months has been spared jail.
Chad Worgan was behind the wheel of the first of these when spotted by police in Lindon Road, Walsall Wood, on June 6, a judge heard.
He swerved across a grass embankment in a bid to lose the pursuing patrol car before travelling at faster than 50mph in a 30 limit in Stoney Lane, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.
Then a brown leather settee was thrown from the back of the vehicle as it hurtled along Fishley Lane in another failed attempt to stop the police from following, said Mr Simon Rippon, prosecuting.
Worgan careered over the Black Cock Bridge in Walsall Wood so fast that the van leapt almost four feet into the air before landing so heavily it sprang an oil leak and soon ground to a halt in a ditch.
Four men fled but he was arrested after a foot chase and later released on bail pending further inquiries.
Another police chase
On July 31 he was among the passengers in another stolen Transit which was being driven by 20-year-old Kane Tipton when seen by a suspicious police patrol that gave chase.
The van rammed a Renault while forcing its way through traffic, drove onto the pavement to get passed other queues before tearing over speed bumps in Pelsall Lane, Rushall, the court heard.
Then it got stuck in more traffic on a bridge and could not barge its way through and so the occupants ran away leaving the unoccupied Transit to roll down the hill into a car injuring a 72-year-old passenger.
Father-of-two Worgan and Tipton were both arrested after another foot chase. Both had criminal records but the latter was lightly convicted.
Mr Anthony Carlin, representing Worgan, said the defendant had changed his lifestyle and was no longer mixing with those who got him into trouble.
Worgan, from Keegan Walk, Bentley, Willenhall, admitted aggravated vehicle taking and allowing himself to be carried in a stolen vehicle.
He was given a nine-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months while Tipton, of Providence Lane, Leamore, Bloxwich, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and dangerous driving and received a two-year community order.
Both defendants were banned from driving for two years, ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work and told to each pay £150 compensation to the woman who was injured.
