Man who stole ambulance with patient inside jailed

A drug addict who stole an ambulance with an elderly patient and paramedic inside has been jailed for 21 months.

Marshall Leese, a prolific user of monkey dust, was chased by police for two miles after taking the ambulance from outside the Royal Stoke University Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent.

He stopped at a petrol station on the A34 in Newcastle-under-Lyme and fled the vehicle but was found hiding nearby by a police sniffer dog.

The 32-year-old appeared at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court after previously admitting false imprisonment and aggravated vehicle taking following the theft on 25 March.

Recorder Ben Williams KC said Leese struck when the ambulance driver went into the hospital holding the keys.

"The driver had left it in a mode which meant it still was running while he went inside... leaving his colleague in the back with an elderly patient and that gentleman's carer," he said.