back to article Armless getaway driver leads police a merry dance

An semi-armless teenager who acted as getaway driver on a jewellery heist, driving at 100mph during a police pursuit "despite needing somebody to change the gears for him", has escaped jail, the Telegraph reports. John Smith, 18 - who has no arms below the elbow - was in charge of a Ford Focus during the robbery of Ernest …

COMMENTS

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  1. SuperTim
    Coat

    Caught "red handed"?

    By the "long arm of the law"

    Did he have to "stump up" his bail money?

    Was he released due to him being 'armless?

    He should heed the old addage... Forewarned is "forearmed".....

    .....Fine, i am getting my coat!

  2. The Dorset Rambler
    Thumb Up

    Now that's a good idea....

    IIRC the sentence for armed robbery is much higher.

    Nice bit of forethought there...

  3. Hermes (nine inch) Conran
    Thumb Up

    Well done..

    to this gang for their disability inclusion program.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    So presumably not...

    ... an armed robbery.

  5. dunncha
    Thumb Up

    I was surprised to see this was in the UK

    These types of stories are usually from some strange Russian country that nobody has every heard off.

    Nice to see PLOD earning their keep. Of course if they wanted to stop them under Anti-Terror legislation and search their camera's for information useful for a terrorist then it was just lucky I guess.

    Or maybe this will pop up as an example of how it works

  6. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Re: I was surprised to see this was in the UK

    Some strange Russian country, like, Russia, perhaps? Not sure I know of any other Russian countries...

  7. raving angry loony

    discrimination luck

    This discrimination due to disability has got to stop. They should have shown they were equal opportunity by throwing the guy in the slammer for 10 years. I guess he was just lucky he didn't have a camera with him.

  8. Edwin
    FAIL

    @dunncha

    "some strange Russian country that nobody has every heard off."???

    http://www.satirewire.com/news/jan02/geography.shtml

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    still soft sentencing

    still soft sentencing for criminals especially young offenders

  10. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    IT Angle?

    Where's the IT angle?

  11. The Original Ash
    WTF?

    Sigh...

    A man driving other than in accordance with a license, without insurance, and not being in a fit state to remain in full control of the vehicle, should be put in jail. His recklessness and disregard for public safety makes him a danger to society. This is the very reason for which we have prisons; To remove dangerous people from society.

    It is the *definition* of incarceration.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Sentencing lottery

    We don't have the full evidence and case notes the judge / jury saw but it seems he got off more lightly than others have in similar cases. Whether disability should be a mitigating factor in punishment will no doubt be a contentious issue; not taking part in the robbery itself though hasn't saved other getaway drivers.

    I'm surprised with a high-speed chase and a driver obviously incapable of controlling a vehicle that he was not also charged with dangerous driving and related offences.

    Mine's the short-sleeved one.

  13. Sarah Bee (Written by Reg staff)

    Re: IT Angle?

    Oh, put a bung in it.

  14. Andy Miller
    Megaphone

    @The Original Ash

    And we can save a whole load of money by doing away with all these "courts" & "judges" & "juries" & "evidence" & "sentencing guidelines".

    Why waste all that time looking at the facts of the case and the defendants, and worrying about what course of action has the highest chance of stopping this individual repeating his crimes?

    No, lets just sentence people based on Ash's reading of an article on the Reg about a report in the Mail and Telegraph.

    We might save enough money to pay for all those new prisons we're going to need.

  15. dunncha
    FAIL

    @ All for dunncha

    Maybe I should have refered to the country previously know as USSR.

    Paris Hilton moment there

    Thanks for this FUNNY!

    'HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS DEMAND WARS

    IN EASIER-TO-FIND COUNTRIES'

  16. TeeCee Gold badge
    Coat

    Re: Sigh...

    No. They only lock you up and throw away the key for driving while legless....

  17. Richard Jukes

    Im gobmacked.

    All of them will be out of nick within 6 months. Its a very lenient sentence for a £175k robbery. Is 6 months worth £175k? Sure beats my minimum wage job...

  18. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Not exactly the Italian Job

    I would have loved to have been at the planning session for that one. I mean, what possible mindset can there be for such a decision?

    "Ooz gonna drahv the mo-tah?"

    "What baht John?"

    "Nice one. E's perfeck, on accahnt of not 'avin any arms, in'ee?"

    OK, the Dickensian / Morporkian accents are in my head, but they add a little something to the whole farcical affair.

  19. Laird

    Can't believe noone did this yet.

    So.....He was a one armed bandit then?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Reduced sentence

    Maybe the judge thought he looked 'armless?

  21. Tony S
    Joke

    @Sarah Bee

    Perhaps we should have a "Miserable Git" award - you can name & shame all of those that demand "where's the IT angle" and everyone can vote for their favourite to be ritually humiliated. We could have a panel of celebrity IT judges to make caustic remarks about their IT skills (or should that be skillz?)

    And in case anyone from TV land is reading this, I reserve to right to be considered the author of this idea, so anyone thinking of turning it into a programme, I want 10%

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Near death experience

    They should just have shot him. After all they're rather good at shooting unarmed men and getting away with it.

  23. John H Woods Silver badge

    Automatic Transmission?

    That is all.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    He's well known to police

    One-fingered Johnny has been in crime since he could walk, his brothers figured the social services always got him off so put him in the windows to open the house doors to burgle.

    He could not be put in an ID line up as they needed find three other people like him, hence he couldn't be identified by his victims.

    He was always riding stolen mopeds around the Marquess estate with his "gang", taunting police, again when caught the social services got him off....he has a reputation as untouchable by the law due to his disability...as one neighbour put it "if he's this bad now, what would he be like with hands?"

    the whole family are in and out of remand centres and prison, local drug dealers and muggers the lot.

    defiantely a failure on child services and a good candidate for care in the community not working

  25. James Micallef Silver badge
    FAIL

    So you get....

    ... at the very most, 32 months (minus time off) for breaking and entering and stealing a 6-figure sum?? While the police tie themselves in knots to prosecute possession of consensual adult 'extreme' porn, arrest photographers for being too tall, and shoot Brazilian electricians for having a middle-eastern skin tone???

    Good to see someone has their priorities right

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    @Sarah

    I'm glad to see you saving up your "ODFO"s for those truly in need.

  27. aqassan

    Get a map!

    I'm sure I'm not the first or the last to say this, but Rainham is in Essex, not Kent. That big wet thing called the Thames tends to get in the way between those two counties.

  28. Colin Wilson
    Coffee/keyboard

    politically correct b*llocks yet again

    "his disability and the fact he did not take part in the raid itself enabled him to suspend the custodial sentence"

    Hang on, this scrote was the getaway driver for "armed" robbers - throw the book at him. Anyone else driving like him even without the robbery aspect would be in jail. Conspiracy to commit theft should be an additional tariff on top of any other sentence.

    ESC - because that's what he appears to have done !

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    IT Angle?

    Obviously the IT angle here is the use of ID Cards and database.

    Wonder if he has to bring his prosthetic arms into the police station so he can be fingerprinted in the meantime.

  30. Matthew 4
    Joke

    One lucky thing..

    They won't be able to charge him for armed robery!

  31. NoOnions
    FAIL

    RE: Get a map!

    It is you, Sir, who needs to get a map. Just because you are only aware of the Essex Rainham doesn't mean there isn't one in Kent. The Shopping Centre, in (Gillingham/Rainham) KENT, is a few miles from the centre of Rainham, KENT. Plus the A2 should have been a clue as well!

  32. PsychicMonkey
    Coat

    hang on, you said jewellers...

    then Ernest Jones. sure it wasn't £1744.45, that more realistic.

    If they took the whole stock of course.......

  33. Thimmus
    Megaphone

    Re: IT angle?

    Hello? Blackwall Tunnel? Did you read the article or just the headline?

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