Double amputee jailed over English high-speed car chase

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2006

LONDON (AFP) — A double amputee was jailed for a year for having led police on a high-speed car chase in rural northeast England using wooden poles and broom handles to control the accelerator and brake. Robert Bate, 27, was sentenced in Newcastle Crown Court after admitting dangerous driving, driving while unfit through drugs, driving without a licence, driving without insurance and failing to stop.

"It's a miracle nobody else was injured," Judge David Hodson told Bate sentencing him to prison for 12 months and banning him from driving for two years. Bate, who lost both his legs in a rail accident when he was nine, operated the automatic-shift Vauxhall Astra using wooden poles, broom handles and ducting tape to control the brake and accelerator. The court heard that the...