A HADDINGTON dad whose BMW was written off after a thief stole the vehicle from his home and led police on a 100mph car chase on the A1 believes the culprit should have been jailed.
Shane Gorman, 54, was asleep at his property on Arthurs Way when the thief broke in, stealing the keys to his one-year-old BMW M235i on November 27 last year.
The dad-of-two said that he had slept through the break-in and was woken by police at 2.30am with the news.
He said: “I got a knock on the door from police and immediately I could see the car was gone.
“I didn’t know how they could have gotten the keys and they urged me to check the house. Sure enough, there were open drawers and cupboard doors where they had been looking for the keys.
“They never took anything else; my wallet was on the worktop but they left that and just took the keys.”
Jay Ferguson, 19, was arrested and charged with the theft after leading police on a car chase that reached speeds of up to 100mph along the A1 towards Musselburgh.
The car was written off and Shane, who works as a health and safety adviser for Bluewater Energy Services in Aberdeen, was left without a vehicle.
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Shane said: “When the car was written off, thankfully I could claim a courtesy car to travel to Aberdeen while the insurance payment came through to sort a new car. It definitely caused some problems.
“I have a new car now, a less fancy Mercedes, but you are always cautious now that something like this could happen again.
“My insurance will likely rise next year too as a result.
“I am just relieved that my kids [aged 16 and 19] weren’t in the house at the time. They are a bit older and at that time they could have still been awake. If they had went down and been confronted by the thief, who knows what could happen.
“It does leave you a bit shaken up. You’re always a bit more on edge now after things like this happen.”
Ferguson this week appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, where the court heard that the teenager, currently of Premier Inn, Carberry Road, near Whitecraig, sped off from the scene but was later spotted by police officers on mobile patrol who had been alerted that the black BMW had been reported stolen earlier that night.
The court was told that the officers began following the teenager as he “took off” in the vehicle, reaching speeds of up to 100mph as he headed along the A1 towards Musselburgh.
Ferguson was seen driving through Newbigging and then into Inveresk Village at high speeds.
He travelled on towards Salters Road in Wallyford, where he clipped the kerb as he negotiated a roundabout in the opposite direction before eventually colliding with a nearby wall and coming to a halt.
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The officers approached the vehicle and Ferguson was arrested and taken into custody following the high-speed pursuit in the early hours of the morning of November 27 last year.
He appeared at the city court from custody the following day, where he pleaded guilty to three charges including theft and dangerous driving.
Ferguson returned to the court for sentencing on Monday, where he was ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work in the community to be completed within 12 months and was banned from driving for 24 months as a direct alternative to custody.
Sheriff Ian Anderson said: “I have taken into account your age and relative lack of previous offending.
“I could well send you to jail, as you broke into someone’s home and stole a vehicle. But I am going to give you an opportunity by imposing a community payback order.”
Solicitor Angela Craig told the court that her client was currently working with social workers and hoped to move into his tenancy in Tranent in the near future.
Ms Craig said: “These are serious charges and Mr Ferguson is well aware of that.”
The lawyer added that Ferguson “is looking to secure employment” and the offences occurred due to “a lack of any structure [in his life] and boredom”.
Shane said that he felt Ferguson's punishment was not enough.
He said: “It’s just not good enough. When there’s no jail time, what is the deterrent?
"He’ll do his community service and then be free to commit the same crime again.
“I would have hoped, given the dangers caused by the crime, that he’d have been given jail time. I don’t think this is justice.”
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