Drunk joyrider took ambulance rapid response car while it was on 999 callMar 20 2013
A DRUNK joyrider drove off in an ambulance rapid response vehicle while its driver was on an emergency call saving a man’s life.
John Heesom, 23, – who had downed nine pints of lager and some shots – was walking home when he noticed the Ford Focus estate car in full ambulance service livery parked with its ignition keys still inside.
The driver had been called to an ill man’s house, had rushed in with a defibrillator and had called out an ambulance crew to take the patient to hospital.
But when the ambulance crew arrived, the rapid response vehicle had disappeared from outside the house on Hope Street in Caergwrle, Flintshire, in the early hours of Sunday, February 24.
Heesom jumped in and drove off – but hit a kerb and then drove on the rim of one of the wheels as the tyre disintegrated.
He abandoned the vehicle, fully equipped with life-saving equipment, and tried to set it alight.
North Wales Ambulance Service had to write-off the vehicle because of the smoke damage.
Many of the items of equipment and drugs inside also had to be scrapped.The incident left the ambulance service was more than £5,000 out of pocket.
Heesom, of ye Old Talbot Inn at Cymau between Mold and Wrexham, admitted aggravated vehicle taking, drink driving and a driving licence offence.
Sentence was adjourned but he was warned at Flintshire magistrates’ court at Mold that he could face immediate imprisonment.
An interim driving ban was imposed and he was bailed to his brother’s address in the Runcorn area.
He was told that it was an aggravating feature that the vehicle was an emergency vehicle which was actually being used in a life-saving situation at the time.
http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/2013/03/20/drunk-joyrider-took-ambulance-rapid-response-car-while-it-was-on-999-call-55578-33026392/
