Shipley man led police on 100mph chase in stolen car
Bradford[1] Crown Court heard that Simon Ross Foster was exhibiting "strange behaviour" and making "bizarre comments" to police when he was apprehended following the high-speed chase on November 2, 2022. Officers used a stinger device to blow the car's tyres, eventually bringing it to a halt. Sentencing Foster, Mr Recorder Thomas Moran said he had regard for his mental health disorder and whether it had any connection to his offences.
Describing the case as "as bad as dangerous driving goes" he said he accepted that Foster's long-standing diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia "must have had a bearing" on what happened as he was experiencing symptoms of his illness. Foster, 41, of West Royd Avenue, Shipley, was subject to a 12-month suspended prison sentence days before he made two attempted burglaries at Leyton Terrace in Bradford on October 30 and 31, 2022. Three days later, on November 2, he burgled houses at Idle Road and Wrose Road.
The occupants were in their homes at the time, and one saw Foster driving off in their car having taken a handbag containing the keys. What was described as "very dangerous driving" and "a particularly serious offence of its kind" resulted in a nine-minute police pursuit that started on the motorway, near Bradford. Police attempted to stop Foster using a stinger - a tactical tyre deflating device - on the motorway slip road, which he initially evaded.
He was clocked driving at 70mph in a 40mph zone on the wrong side of bollards towards oncoming vehicles before accelerating to 80mph in a 30mph zone and jumping three sets of red traffic lights. He overtook other vehicles, went the wrong way around a roundabout and eventually reached a speed of 100mph before losing control of the car as all tyres had by then deflated. He was arrested after a struggle when the stolen car mounted the pavement and came to a stop.
He later pleaded guilty to burglary, attempted burglary, and dangerous driving. Recorder Moran said: "You said you committed these offences because you were homeless having been released from custody and [were] doing it to buy food and other essentials. "Sadly, quite a lot of people can find themselves in that position.
It doesn't lead them to go and burgle people's houses." He said Foster had failed to consistently engage with support and treatment for his illness and had demonstrated "limited motivation" to address his drug misuse. However, he said Foster suffered from "a serious chronic relapsing mental health disorder" that had "blighted" his life.
He activated the suspended sentence and jailed Foster for a total of four years and two months, disqualified him from driving for an extended period of 55 months, and ordered him to take an extended retest before he drives again.