Addict leapt from moving van stolen from Mansfield car park during police chase

Jamie Murr was towing a trailer with a stolen mini-road roller when police began following him in marked and unmarked cars, at 11am on August 15, last year.

He accelerated to 40mph on a residential street in Newark before jumping out, said prosecutor David Allan.

His passenger was arrested immediately, but Murr, who was wearing a hi-visibility jacket, ran off and hid in a garden.

When he re-emerged he was chased by officers with Tasers. A foil packet containing mamba was found on him.

When he was interviewed the next day the 27-year-old denied any knowledge of the thefts and told officers he thought the road roller belonged to the block paving company he worked for.

The van was taken from outside Screwfix in Mansfield Woodhouse.

Murr was released from prison a couple of months before committing the offences.

Nottingham Crown Court heard he has 73 previous convictions for a 'large number of shoplifting offences,'and was banned from driving in 2018. He was last in trouble on July 20, when he pleaded guilty to stealing a car battery at Boston Magistrates Court.

Shannon English, mitigating, said he has a long standing relationship with heroin and alcohol but has detoxed while in custody.

She said he deserved full credit for his early guilty pleas and was remorseful.

But Judge Nigel Godsmark QC said: "Remorse is one thing Ms English. But this defendant simply doesn't stop."

She said that prison, where drugs are easily available, would undo the progress he has made with a substance-misuse agency in the last year.

Murr, of Queens Court, Newark, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, failing to stop and possession of a class B drug at a previous hearing.

On Wednesday the judge handed him a 21-week prison sentence which means that he will be released immediately because of the time he has already served in custody and on a qualifying curfew. He banned Murr from driving for three years.