Kentish Express Ashford & District
Driver ran after 70mph chase in £31k stolen car
Exclusive ‘The Audi left the designer outlet and came across the police cars and accelerated away’
Two people seen in a £31,000 stolen Audi near Ashford’s designer outlet have been convicted of aggravated vehicle taking.
A jury heard how it failed to stop and accelerated away leading police officers on a high-speed chase around the outskirts of the town.
The Audi reached speeds of 70mph in a 30mph area, jumping red traffic lights and driving on the wrong side of the road, Canterbury Crown Court heard.
The car sped along Norman Road, Beaver Road, Beaver Lane and Brookfield Road, pursued by the police.
Eventually the car was forced to a stop by police near the Matalan roundabout and four of the five people inside were arrested. The driver ran off but has since been identified, said Andrew Espley, prosecuting.
Reece Williams, 24, and Suzanne Hefferman, 45, who denied the offence were found guilty.
But two others, Ashley Woolven, 31, Vaughan Porter, 34, from Hither Green were found not guilty by the jury.
Williams, of Greenwich, was ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work for the community and banned from driving for three months and Hefferman, of Lenham Road, Headcorn was fined £600.
Mr Espley had revealed how the Audi had been stolen from a driveway in Sevenoaks on October 31 last year and was spotted on several occasions sporting fake number plates.
On November 2, it was seen with the same false plates in London and the following day with different fake plates in Dartford and Bluewater.
Then on November 4 it was seen in Maidstone and Orpington with the second set of false plates but that afternoon it had the first set of false plates back on – with the other set underneath – when it was in Ashford’s designer outlet.
Mr Espley added: “The Audi left the designer outlet and came across the police cars and accelerated away. It was driven extremely dangerously and eventually crashed into a tree.”
The passengers were arrested and all four said that they did not know the car had been stolen.
Mr Espley added: “It defies common sense to think that they were in a state of blissful ignorance while driving around in a £31,000 car.”