CAR-JACKERS sparked “14 miles of mayhem” during a 116mph police chase along the A127 after stealing a delivery driver’s car in Westcliff.

Keanu Harriott-Richards, 20, and Alfie Simmons-Turner, 21, were described as “recreational dangerous drivers” in court yesterday as they were sentenced.

Prior to the chase, they stole the car in St John’s Road, Westcliff, and drove it directly at the delivery driver who was forced to leap out of the way to avoid being hit.

At Basildon Crown Court, Simmons-Turner, of Bittacy Hill, Mill Hill, North West London, was jailed for one year and nine months after admitting dangerous driving and aggravated vehicle taking.

 

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Harriott-Richards, of London Road, Westcliff, was sent to a young offenders’ institution for nine months after pleading guilty to two counts of aggravated vehicle taking.

Sentencing, Judge Andrew Hurst said: “I am perfectly satisfied you were both enthusiastic about this as you both really like doing this sort of thing.

“Far from deciding the joke was over you decided to make off, making extremely dangerous manoeuvres, causing 14 miles and seven minutes of mayhem which was completely out of control.

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“It’s a miracle nobody was seriously injured or even killed and I have no doubt you thought you were clever - you are not.

“What you were up to was recreational dangerous driving.”

Prosecuting, Matt Ward told the court the car was travelling at 116 miles per hour before hitting a lamppost on the A128.

He said: “The police chased them for almost 14 miles and £4,000-worth of damage was caused to the car. The victim had to jump out of the way of the car to avoid being hit.

“It seems Simmons-Turner was under the influence of cannabis at the time and he was the driver.”

Shaun Murphy, mitigating for Harriott-Richards, told the court his client did not have a great deal of structure growing up and was only a willing participant in the incident at first.

Mitigating for SimmonsTurner, Joseph Barlow said: “He was going through a very dark time and in the two years since this he’s had the opportunity to address this.”