As a getaway driver he certainly had some of the qualifications: youth, stupidity and a blatant disregard for the law. In one area, however, John Smith was lacking - he had no arms.
Not that this was to deter a gang who, a court heard, employed him in a £175,000 raid on a jeweller's. Despite his disability, 18-year-old Smith, whose limbs end in stumps just below his elbows, managed to lead police on a terrifying 100mph car chase. At one point fellow gang members were leaning across to help him change gear.
Smith, who cannot dress himself and lives at home with his mother, was one of four youths charged with raiding an Ernest Jones store at a shopping centre near Rainham in Kent, last December.
As he waited in a Ford Focus, gang members used crowbars and hammers to smash their way into the store. Once the raid was complete they leapt back in the car and raced off towards London, with the police by this time in pursuit.
Smith, who is not thought to have been wearing prosthetic arms during the chase, kept control of the vehicle for more than 30 miles before finally crashing on the approach to the Blackwall Tunnel-in the east of the capital. The teenager, from North London, pleaded guilty to his part in the raid at Maidstone Crown Court. He was given a 12-month youth custody sentence, suspended for two years.
A judge also ordered that he be tagged and put under a six-month curfew. In mitigation, Lee Halliday-Davis said Smith had limited reading and writing skills.
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