Ex-stock car driver took stolen £37,000 Porsche on 100mph chase
A FORMER stock car driver who took a Doncaster woman's £37,000 sports car for thrills and sparked a 100mph police chase has been jailed for four years.
A judge at Doncaster Crown Court said it was one of the worst cases of dangerous driving he had ever heard and told Daniel Paul Weston he had not given any thought to the harm he might cause other people.
Recorder Toby Wynn told the 28-year-old: "You were playing Russian roulette with other people's lives and its is a miracle you didn't severely injure or kill anyone."
Weston admitted burgling a house in Town Moor Avenue, Doncaster, last July and taking the keys to a Porsche belonging to the owner, Doncaster accountant Jackie Gibson, as well as her laptop and iPod.
He then headed to a Bawtry garage and filled up with 57 of fuel but drove off without paying for it, said Neil Coxon, prosecuting.
The next day police spotted the Porsche near the racecourse roundabout and followed it though Town Moor and Wheatley, where at some points it reached 100mph in 30mph zones.
It zoomed through red lights, caused sparks when it sped over speed humps, and narrowly missed a pedestrian in Winchester Avenue.
As it was pursued along Wheatley Hall Road to the town centre it came upon traffic jams but the Porsche mounted the pavement to get past and into the Market Place.
Weston then headed back along Town Moor Avenue to Bawtry Road, hitting 80mph before colliding with a woman's stationary car at the Cantley Bridge traffic lights.
The damaged Porsche then continued through Branton, watched by the police helicopter, and eventually suffered tyre blowouts in Auckley and crashed onto a grass verge where police arrested Weston.
He told officers he "wanted to drive a supercar", said Mr Coxon, who added he had four previous offences of aggravated vehicle taking on his record of 16 convictions going back 12 years.
Desmond Rosario, defending, admitted it was an "appalling piece of criminality" and said Weston had told a probation officer his offending "was in his blood" because he used to be a stock car racer when he was 18 and still liked the excitement of fast driving.
Weston, of no fixed address, was sentenced to four years for burglary, two years concurrent for aggravated vehicle taking, and three months concurrent for making off without payment.
He pleaded guilty to all the offences and was also banned from driving for three years.
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