Court hears of dumper truck duo

May 21 2008 by Neil Mckay, The Journal

TWO hapless young men who were stopped by police driving a nine-tonne dumper truck home were on board because they could not find a taxi, magistrates were told yesterday.

Richard Morgan, 21, and partner-in-crime John Hall, 19, came across the truck in a building compound next to Durham Johnston School in Neville’s Cross.

They were in the early stages of a nine-mile walk from Durham back to Billy Row, Crook, where they both live, and the unexpected opportunity of a ride home proved too hard to resist.

Morgan, of Albert Terrace, Billy Row, who works on building sites, happened to have a master key for a similar vehicle in his pocket.

And after a Saturday night spent sampling the products of some of Durham City’s abundant pubs and clubs, taking the truck seemed a good idea.

So at 1.55am on the morning of Sunday, April 27 they climbed on board, smashed the truck through a perimeter fence, and began making unsteady progress along the A167 Durham to Darlington road.

Janet Coxon, prosecuting at Consett Magistrates’ Court, said a passing taxi driver reported the truck being driven erratically and without lights “at about 20 to 25 miles per hour”.

It was driven five miles through the villages of Bearpark, Ushaw Moor and New Brancepeth, before a police patrol car came across it in Pit Lane, New Brancepeth.

Ms Coxon told the court that the pair, “apparently believing the patrol car was another taxi,” waved it past, before realising their mistake.

Morgan fled the scene but handed himself in to police later that morning. Hall, of West Terrace, Billy Row, was arrested at the scene.

Yesterday, Morgan admitted aggravated vehicle taking and dangerous driving. Hall pleaded guilty to allowing himself to be carried in a vehicle knowing it to have been illegally taken.

Sam Brewster, representing Morgan, described the incident as “a case of drunken high jinks that got well and truly out of hand”.

Morgan was given a 12-month community order under supervision, ordered to attend a citizenship programme and to carry out 150 hours’ unpaid work. He was also banned from driving for 18 months, told he must pass an extended re-test before driving again unaccompanied and ordered to pay £43 costs.

Hall was given a two-year conditional discharge, banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay £43 costs.