// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
Man who stole ambulance with patient inside jailed
Marshall Leese, 32, admitted multiple offences following the theft in March
A drug addict who stole an ambulance with an elderly patient and "terrified" paramedic inside has been jailed for 21 months.
Marshall Leese, a prolific user of monkey dust, was chased by police for two miles, going through red light signals, after taking the ambulance from outside the Royal Stoke University Hospital in Stoke-on-Trent. Had it crashed, the patient would have died, the court heard.
He stopped at a petrol station on the A34 in Newcastle-under-Lyme and fled the vehicle but was found hiding nearby by a police sniffer dog.
The 32-year-old appeared at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court after previously admitting false imprisonment and aggravated vehicle taking following the theft on 25 March.
Leese struck when the ambulance driver went into the hospital holding the keys, recorder Ben Williams KC said.
"The driver had left it in a mode which meant it still was running while he went inside... leaving his colleague in the back with an elderly patient and that gentleman's carer," he said.
As the ambulance drove off, the paramedic leaned into the front compartment and shouted at Leese to stop.
"When you got behind the wheel and decided to keep going, once he'd made his presence known, you in terms committed the offence of false imprisonment intentionally although you may not have thought about it in that way," Williams told the defendant.
The paramedic was "terrified" and grabbed a metal pole which he threatened to hit Leese with, the recorder said.