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20
Jan
Police catch car thief filling up at Boroughbridge petrol station
A drunk car thief was intercepted by police at a petrol station in Boroughbridge.
Ben Slater, 36, appeared at Harrogate Magistrates Court last Friday (January 16) when he was sentenced for four offences: theft of a motor vehicle; driving whilst disqualified; driving without insurance and failing to provide a specimen for analysis.
He had previously admitted the charges on October 23 last year.
North Yorkshire Police said a delivery driver stopped at a takeaway on Thirsk’s Market Place shortly before 8pm on October 8 last year.
The driver left their vehicle running as they collected orders from the takeaway, but when they returned just minutes later, it had been stolen.
The car was soon spotted exiting the A1(M) at junction 48 at Boroughbridge, before it stopped at a petrol station on Wetherby Road.
As Slater filled up the stolen vehicle, police intercepted him and he was arrested.
A roadside breath test was carried out and Slater, of Lingfoot Crescent in Sheffield, gave a reading of 74 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – more than double the legal limit of 35 micrograms.
However, as he failed to provide a breath sample in custody, he was charged with failing to provide a specimen.
Slater was banned from driving for two years and ordered to pay a total of £319 to the court.
He was also ordered to complete an alcohol rehabilitation programme.
Detective inspector Nick Hamer, of the North Yorkshire Police's Harrogate investigations hub, said:
Both the arresting officers and my colleagues in the Investigation Hub have done a phenomenal job apprehending and charging Slater as quickly as they did.
We know all too well the consequences of drink-driving but thankfully we intercepted before Slater could cause any harm.
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