Thief accuses heroin dealer
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Disabled driver Gerald Grey stole an artic loaded with drinks with a combined value of £114,000 because his heroin dealer told him to, a court has heard.
Grey, who had been banned from driving only 11 days earlier, climbed into the truck at a transport depot in the Forest of Dean and set off towards Gloucester. But he was spotted by haulier Richard Read, who gave chase in his car after calling police, Gloucester Crown Court was told.
A "stinger" device was laid across the road by police to puncture the truck's tyres but it had little effect. However. Grey, of Capel Rd, Matson, Gloucester, then stopped the vehicle himself and was arrested, said Gavin Doig, prosecuting.
Grey, who was walking with a stick, was before the court to be sentenced for theft of the vehicle, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.
Doig said that on 18 December last year the tractive unit owned by Richard Read Transport was driven out of the yard with £25,000 worth of drink on board. "Mr Read himself saw the unit being driven out of the company premises," said Doig. "He realised it should not have been going anywhere and he gave chase, having contacted the police. The defendant told the police he had been requested to take it by an unknown person who had put a note through his letter box telling him to steal the vehicle and take it north on the M5, where he would be contacted."
Penny Wilson, defending, said the note telling Grey to steal the lorry had conic from a drug dealer to whom he owed money for heroin. Grey was taking the drug to ease the pain of an old motorcycling injury which he suffered when he was 19, she added: The person who supplied him with the drugs is well known to the police. He is a person with a lot of connections in the criminal underworld."
Recorder Mark Harington DC agreed to adjourn for three weeks for a medical report to be obtained on Grey's disabilities but warned him that he would probably have to go to jail.