A car thief crashed a Range Rover in spectacular fashion after bombing down the A19 with the owner’s assistance dog inside.
Nicholas Oakland, 30, was driving through busy traffic at speeds of up to 125mph with police in hot pursuit, York Crown Court heard.
During the chase between York and Selby, Oakland drove on the wrong side of the road and weaved in and out of traffic at ‘ludicrous’ speeds, with the owner’s pet Doberman Jake in the back seat, said prosecutor Ayman Khokar.
Oakland put his foot down as soon as he saw police and started overtaking numerous vehicles in the tightest of margins.
Video footage of the chase showed the Range Rover hitting a central traffic island at 103mph as it approached a roundabout at high speed, forcing Oakland to take the first exit left towards North Duffield.
Oakland, of Cecilia Place, York, then sped along the A163 Market Weighton Road.
Police had laid a stinger at the next junction, the Blackwood Crossroads near Skipwith, but despite it deflating the Rover’s tyres, Oakland didn’t reduce speed, at which point the pursuing officer decided to back off temporarily for safety reasons.
Dog thrown from the vehicle
Oakland eventually lost complete control of the vehicle and ploughed into a post and a verge on the opposite side of the road, causing the 4×4 to flip over and “barrel-roll” into a field.
Jake the dog was thrown from the vehicle but, miraculously, emerged from the back of the Range Rover and ran in front of a police car.
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Jake, apparently terrified, then ran across fields and roads around North Duffield as officers tried to catch him. He was eventually found and taken to a vet for treatment to injuries caused in the crash.
Oakland had to be pulled out of the upturned vehicle by police.
Traffic officer Sergeant Julian Pearson, of North Yorkshire Police, said Oakland’s driving was “extremely dangerous”.
Oakland was charged with dangerous driving, taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent, driving while disqualified and causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal.
Owner of the Range Rover Matthew Wilson said he had parked it in Watson Street in York to go into a convenience store on Holgate Road at about 4pm on February 24.
He left his dog in the back of the car behind a separator. When he came back, his Range Rover, and Jake, had gone.
Not fit for trial
Two consultant psychiatrists judged Oakland not fit to face trial because he was mentally unwell, which meant a finding-of-the-facts hearing had to be held in his absence to determine whether Oakland did the acts alleged.
Yesterday (Thursday, August 11), the jury found that Oakland did all four of the acts alleged.
Judge Sean Morris adjourned sentence until 7 October for psychiatric reports.
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The court heard that Oakland had a previous conviction for dangerous driving from March 2019, when he was jailed for 20 months and banned from driving for two years following two police chases in July and August 2018.
In the first incident, he drove on a pavement, scraped along a Park&Ride bus and then drove through a line of traffic cones into a stretch of road closed off for roadworks on Fulford Road, forcing workmen to leap out of the way.
In the second incident, he rammed a police car after driving at 70mph without lights on, at night, in Tang Hall Lane, and driving the wrong way down Hull Road.
On that occasion, Oakland was sentenced for a raft of offences including dangerous driving, aggravated vehicle-taking, failing to stop and stealing a sandwich and a bottle of pop. His defence barrister at the time said he was psychotic and had long-standing mental-health problems linked to drugs.