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13
Mar
Harrogate man sentenced for stealing car and driving it without licence
A Harrogate man who stole a woman’s car and drove it without a licence or insurance has been sentenced.
Benjamin Steel, 37, appeared at Harrogate Magistrates Court on Thursday (March 12) when he admitted four offences: failing to provide a specimen for analysis; driving without insurance; driving without a licence and theft of a motor vehicle.
Prosecutor Alison Whiteley told the court the named victim parked her car outside her house in Harrogate on February 24 this year.
She got out the car and went inside her house at around 2.30pm, before going outside to her car once again to take her shopping inside 30 minutes later.
The victim did not realise her car had been stolen until police contacted her to say Steel had been driving it.
Ms Whiteley said:
The car was stolen with keys inside but it’s not clear how the keys were obtained. [Victim] says she might’ve dropped them when getting her shopping.
Police saw the victim’s car in the King Edward’s Drive area of Harrogate at around 4.20pm that day.
Officers’ attention was drawn to it when they noticed two men who were known to police trying to get in the car.
When police approached it, the driver fled.
The car was being driven “very poorly” and veered into other the side of the road, the court heard, but police managed to stop it and found Steel in the driver's seat.
Ms Whiteley said:
The defendant told police he had borrowed it from a friend but had no further details. He also did not have a licence or insurance.
His speech was slurred and his eyes were glazed over at the time.
Steel, of Burns Way, tried to make off on foot but was soon stopped by police.
He recorded 92 micrograms of alcohol in a roadside breath test – nearly three-times the legal limit of 35 micrograms – at 4.45pm.
The defendant was taken to the police station and asked to provide another breath sample, which he refused.
Steel, who has a lengthy criminal record, told officers at the time:
I have shortness of breath when I do not drink enough alcohol.
‘It was not a deliberate refusal’
Sean Wilson, defending, reminded magistrates Steel admitted the offences at the first opportunity.
He also said Steel gave a breath sample at the roadside and tried to provide another at the police station, but failed to do so.
“It was not a deliberate refusal, but I agree there was a high level of impairment”, Mr Wilson said.
He added Steel has struggled with alcohol misuse since he was 14 and has been dependent on it for most of that period.
The defendant has also been a heroin addict since the age of 25 but is now on a methadone script.
Mr Wilson told the court:
Mr Steel also has psychosis, but the diagnosis is non-specified – it could be due to borderline personality disorder or schizophrenia.
He has also been seeing North Yorkshire Horizons [a council-owned recovery service] for his alcohol use.
Steel was handed a 12-month community order, during which he must complete 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days.
He was ordered to pay a total of £199 to the court and banned from driving for 28 months.
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