Hartlepool teenage tearaway 'obsessed' with car crime jailed for catalogue of crimes

Ross Reynard, 18, led police on three high speed chases in different vehicles over four months after walking out on his family when they tried to set boundaries.

During one in the early hours of the morning, he crashed into a police van and through a pensioner’s garden wall at Owton Manor, Hartlepool causing over £1,300 damage.

Teesside Crown Court heard Reynard committed the first of three dangerous driving offences he admitted on February 6 this year around Redcar when he was just 17.

He drove a BMW 3 Series erratically and at speeds of 78mph in a 50mph zone while trying to escape police.

The judge said it was lucky nobody was killed.

On April 13, he lost police after failing to stop on roads around Hartlepool town centre in a Honda Accord.

Later that day, Reynard drove dangerously around Owton Manor including doing 74mph on Wynyard Road and drove over front gardens in Endrick Road.

On May 31 at about 1am, he led police on a 17-minute chase around Owton Manor in a Vauxhall Vectra.

Prosecutor Emma Atkinson said: “At the junction of Inverness Road and Owton Manor Lane he didn’t slow down and collided with a police van, through a fence and the garden wall.”

Reynard, of Islay Grove, Hartlepool, admitted three counts of dangerous driving, three of failing to provide a specimen and several charges of driving without insurance or a licence.

He also admitted two shop thefts on February 17 where he planned to sell the goods to fund his car crime.

Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said Reynard was “a very immature young man” who has begun to realise he risks being in prison for a long time if he does not change.

Despite his young age, Judge Jonathan Carroll said Reynard’s attitude and risk of further offending meant there was no alternative to jail.

He said: “You were in effect obsessed with vehicle crime at the time, seeking to buy and sell cars and race around in them.”

Reynard was jailed for 18 months and banned from driving for 27 months.

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