Exclusive:Sheffield thief “slumped” behind wheel of getaway car after crashing into shop window
He had taken a heady cocktail of crack and heroin
A Sheffield thief who snatched an £800 e-bike battery before fleeing in a Ford Fiesta was found “slumped” behind the wheel in a Tesco carpark after crashing the getaway car into a shop window.
“Intoxicated” Peter Codman, aged 44, had taken a heady cocktail of crack and heroin before the theft and after speeding away he was seen “swerving” into oncoming traffic.
He later tried to run down a member of the public who intervened when a woman was seen “screaming” and “covered” in blood inside the vehicle.
Judge Megan Rhys told Codman the Good Samaritan must have been “terrified” and “such behaviour will not be tolerated by the courts”.
Jack Staples-Butler, prosecuting, described how on April 1 around 12pm Codman swiped a battery worth £600-£800 from an e-bike tied up outside The Circle in the city centre.
He was then seen “speeding” down Rockingham Lane.
At around 5.45pm, said the prosecutor, a member of the public contacted police, telling them he had followed Codman’s black Fiesta - which carried cloned registration plates.
He had seen it “swerving” along Wordsworth Avenue, Parson Cross, where it collided with a Nissan Qashqai before parking up on Park View Road, Hillsborough.
Mr Staples-Butler said the complainant - a retired policeman - witnessed a woman “screaming” in the passenger seat and whose face was “covered in blood”.
After having tapped on Codman’s window to aid the female, the Good Samaritan had to “push” her out of the way when she exited the car as the defendant tried to run them both over multiple times.
Codman then fled in the car before crashing into a shop window, driving away and coming to a stop at Tesco - where he was found asleep in the driver’s seat and arrested by police.
The defendant had 76 previous offences on his record, the court heard, including dangerous driving, robbery, firearms offences and vehicle theft.
Antonia Adie, Codman’s barrister, said the incident was “spontaneous and impulsive,” motivated by drug addiction and that her client had been “kidnapped and tortured” not long before it happened.
Judge Rhys told Codman he had an “appalling” criminal record, adding that pre-sentence reports showed he “minimised” his behaviour, failing to accept responsibility and blaming drug addiction for “everything”.
She said: “I do not accept you are motivated to change at all. I am entirely satisfied you will not comply with any order I make.
“(The complainant) must have been terrified. He was simply doing his public duty. This behaviour will not be tolerated by the courts.”
Codman, of Winster Road, Hillsborough, was jailed for two years and five months and handed a three-year driving ban.
He admitted dangerous driving, theft, threats to kill and driving uninsured.