Not all enthusiasts are created equal...
By Will Pavia
A TEENAGE bus spotter who took his love to the next level, stealing buses to make night-time trips along the South Coast, has been jailed for eight months.
Paul Hughes, 19, had an unlimited enthusiasm for buses, which led him to hang around Havant bus station, Hampshire, talking to drivers. When that was no longer enough he began to drive the buses away, taking two 100-mile trips, apparently without anyone noticing. He would board the bus while the driver was in the lavatory or on a break.
It was only on a third trip that he triggered an alarm and was cornered by police after a chase through the suburbs of Fareham, Hampshire.
The story began on Sunday at Hilsea bus station, Ports-mouth. Hughes boarded a First Buses bus there while the driver was in the lavatory and drove it away. He visited Lewes, East Sussex, a journey of 60 miles, then Winchester, another 70 miles, before heading 20 miles north to Basingstoke. That night he slept in the bus at a service station and returned it the next morning.
District Judge John Woollard found it “surprising” that Hughes had not been stopped, and “concerning” that he had “kept it for hours and nobody at the bus station was aware that they had lost the vehicle”.
District Judge John Woollard found it “surprising” that Hughes had not been stopped, and “concerning” that he had “kept it for hours and nobody at the bus station was aware that they had lost the vehicle”.
A spokesman for First Buses told The Times yesterday that security was not an issue. “I understand that it was reported missing by the driver,” he said. “When he got out of the toilet it wasn’t there, but then it reappeared the following morning.”
However, that very day Hughes took another of the First Bus fleet on a 110-mile round trip to Brighton. The First Buses spokesman said: “It was later found in the South Coast resort of Hayling Island. It had run out of fuel.”
Hughes then turned his attentions to a Stagecoach depot in Havant, but this time he set off the company’s bus-tracking equipment. Six police cars gave chase down the M27, finally boxing Hughes into the side of a highway in Fareham.
Portsmouth Magistrates’ Court was told that Hughes, of no fixed address, had been released from prison only 12 days earlier, where he had been serving a sentence for stealing a bus in Sussex. He admitted three counts of taking a vehicle without consent, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.
posted by Suzy Scott @ 20:14
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home