By Lucy Bogustawski Daily Post
NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, England — A man has been jailed for four and a half years for a catalogue of crimes, including a JCB wrecking spree in which he destroyed parts of a village.
Nottingham Crown Court was shown police helicopter footage of Steven Regan, 34, driving a JCB digger he had stolen from a Barratt Homes building site on July 2 this year.
He was first spotted on CCTV driving the vehicle on the A60 in Church Warsop, near Mansfield, at a speed of between 15mph and 20mph, which prosecutor Jon Fountain said was fast for that type of machinery.
In a bid to avoid police officers he ploughed through hedges and fields into a park area and then into a cemetery.
He lost control as he was driving on the main footpath through the cemetery and smashed into a number of headstones, destroying them in the process.
The court heard he used the digger to ram three times the 100-year-old stone and wrought iron cemetery gates to get out the other side.
Regan, of Colenso Terrace in Leeds, was detained by officers on the road not far from the cemetery after the JCB came to a halt because of a deflated tyre.
Mr Fountain said an estimated pounds 15,000 of damage was caused in the cemetery.
Sentencing him today Judge Tony Mitchell described the JCB he was driving as a "ram rod" and said he was behaving like a "man possessed" as he tried to get away from police, actions which would have terrified people in the area.
The judge said little defence could be offered for Regan’s actions, which were part of a larger operation in which he was paid to steal the vehicles and deliver them to others.
Copyright 2011 The Liverpool Daily Post & Echo Ltd
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