Middlesbrough Joyrider Sent To Prison For Dangerous Driving

28 July 2014, 14:16 | Updated: 29 July 2014, 07:36

A former joyrider from Middlesbrough, who killed an eight-year-old boy in 2006, has been jailed again for dangerous driving.

24 year old Ashley Lindo was trying to escape from police and reached up to 60mph along narrow roads in what Teesside Crown Court heard was a "desperate attempt'' to flee his pursuers.

He drove along footpaths and blew two tyres out when he smashed his car onto the kerb, yet did not stop.

Judge Peter Bowers jailed Lindo, of Orwell Street, for 18 months after the defendant admitted dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.

He banned him from driving for five years following Lindo's latest example of terrible driving.

In May 2006 he knocked down and killed Daniel Conroy Curtin, aged eight, when Lindo drove a stolen Rover Metro through Riverside Park, Middlesbrough.

For that offence of causing death by dangerous driving he was sent to a Young Offenders' Institute for three years, but served half that term.

At 6.30pm on Saturday April 12 this year a detective spotted the 6ft 4in man getting behind the wheel of a Skoda Octavia in a residential street in central Middlesbrough.

The officer called for a marked police car to respond and when Lindo was pulled over, he slowed down and made as if he was going to stop.

But when an officer got out to speak to him, Lindo accelerated away in the Skoda.

Sue Jacobs, prosecuting, said:
"It lurched forward and took off at speed."

The Pc followed about 10m behind Lindo as he sped at up to 60mph along streets of terraced housing where the limit was 30mph.

Some narrow streets operated a 20mph limit, and he drove over 50mph, the court heard.

He flung the car round corners, throwing up dust and debris from the wheels, Miss Jacobs said.

Lindo squeezed his vehicle between bollards and onto footpaths, one which ran behind a primary school, at up to 40mph.

He mounted grass verges and when his route was blocked by another police vehicle, he drove the Skoda hard onto the kerb, causing two tyres to deflate.

After pulling off a handbrake turn in one manoeuvre, Lindo finally ditched the car, a mile after the pursuit began, after the tyres went completely flat.

He ran into a working men's club in Parliament Road where he was arrested.

The prosecution said:
"This is a prolonged, persistent course of very bad driving.

It is clearly aggravated by his previous convictions, the time of day and the locations, as it involved residential streets in central Middlesbrough."

Miss Jacobs said Lindo had 11 convictions for 22 offences, including another dangerous driving offence committed three years after he killed the little boy.

Gary Wood, defending, said Lindo, who is unemployed, was the father of a six-week-old baby.

He said
"Since becoming a father he doesn't go out at all and his outlook on life has changed dramatically.''

He continued by saying Lindo's only explanation for the way he drove was that he "panicked''.

Judge Bowers said:
"You have such experience of the court you known this was highly dangerous.

It was a high speed chase through the town centre.

At times you crossed pedestrian areas - areas where a pedestrian would not expect a car, all in a desperate attempt to escape from the police.''