A DRUNK car thief who was caught after trying to steal two vehicles from the same garage has been jailed for six months and banned from driving for 10 years..
Police chased Damian Richard Kirkman along the M56 in the early hours of April 8 after he stole an MG convertible which was awaiting repair at Brook Works, off Fountain Lane, Main Street, Frodsham.
He abandoned the car when its engine overheated before returning to the same garage on the same night to steal a Rover saloon.
Kirkman, 31, of St Helens, was arrested after he narrowly missed hitting a police car while pulling out of the garage’s repair yard.
He pleaded guilty to eight charges at Vale Royal Magistrates, including taking a vehicle without consent, driving without insurance, driving with excess alcohol and driving while disqualified.
He was jailed for six months and banned from driving for 10 years.
In April, owner Graham Davies, 63, who has run the garage for 25 years, said: “The cars were in a compound which he broke into. He must have climbed over the top and knocked the lock off. The second time he had just got to the main road and nearly crashed in to the police car, that’s when the police caught them.”
The garage was also targeted last month when a Mercedes left overnight was torched and the windows of eight other cars were smashed in a vandal attack.
Police believe the vandal used his hands to smash the windows because blood was found around the area.
Crime scene investigators scoured the scene for evidence, taking DNA from the cars and blood on the ground.
Mr Davies added: “It looks like an act of wanton vandalism. There’s a lot of blood about – they must have cut their hands or something.”
As well as vehicles being serviced by the garage, Mr Davies says the forecourt is used by drivers using it as a car park.
