A Nottingham man has been jailed and disqualified from driving for three shop thefts – including one in Hucknall – and for driving dangerously on an illegal off-road motorcycle while being pursued by police.
Adrian Johnson, 44, from Radford Road in Nottingham, was spotted riding a motorbike without a number plate along Edwards Lane in Bestwood when he was spotted by a passing patrol car at around 2.00 pm on 15 January.
Officer saw him undertaking cars as he rode south towards Sherwood. Johnson stalled the bike at the Valley Road roundabout. After restarting it he sped through residential streets. Police say that he rode the wrong way around a roundabout, passed through a red light, and narrowly avoided colliding with other cars.
He mounted the pavement and attempted to weave his way through a set of bollards and down an alleyway before stalling for a second time on Mansfield Road. A police officer ran towards him and dragged him to the floor, before being arrested.
He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving without insurance, driving without a license, and criminal damage; and for thefts from supermarkets in Nottingham and Hucknall in November and December last year. At Nottingham Crown Court last Monday (18 March), Johnson, who has previous convictions for theft and burglary, was sentenced to 29 months in prison, and disqualified from driving for 18 months.
“This was a terrible display of riding that could easily have caused serious injury to another road user, a pedestrian, or to Johnson himself”, Sergeant David Stafford, of Nottinghamshire Police, said. “By riding through residential streets in the way he did he showed absolutely no regard to anyone else.
“I am pleased he has now been jailed and hope this sentence serves as a warning to others about the potential consequences of this type of riding.”
Watch a Nottinghamshire Police video of the pursuit
