Teen who kidnapped two brothers then crashed family car avoids jail
One of the young boys was injured in the crash.
A teenager who kidnapped two young brothers while stealing their family car in Birmingham has avoided jailed.
The unnamed youth, 15, crashed into two other cars at high speed before being arrested by armed police following the incident on February 20. One of the brothers suffered minor injuries.
He had denied kidnapping, claiming he drove off in the vehicle to settle a £40 drug debt, after mistaking the youngsters’ father for a delivery driver.
The parent had been left crying hysterically in the street after his vehicle was stolen in the Bournville area of Birmingham, while he was dropping off food at a friend’s home.
He told a previous court hearing that he had shouted to tell the youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, that his sons were inside the vehicle minutes before the crash on the city’s busy A38 Bristol Road.
Birmingham Crown Court heard in a statement from the father, read by prosecutor Syed Ahmed on Wednesday, that the incident had been ‘the most horrific experience of my whole entire life.’
He added: ‘It just made me sick to my stomach.’
The teenager, alongside a 16-year-old co-defendant, had previously admitted aggravated vehicle taking, incorporating dangerous driving but denied kidnap.
On Thursday, the boy was handed a two-year rehabilitation order; placed under intensive supervision and surveillance for 12 months; given an extended activity requirement for 180 days; and an electronically monitored curfew between 8pm and 6am for six months, after being found guilty of kidnapping.
The defendant was also ordered not to contact the victims’ family, and his mother was handed a parenting order for 12 months.
Judge Peter Carr warned the boy it was in his interest to follow the rehabilitation requirements.
He said: ‘I hope you’ll take advantage of it. If you don’t, you’ll go to custody.’
The older child was uninjured in the crash but his two-year-old brother suffered a cut to his mouth and a bruised shoulder caused by the straps of his car seat.
The 16-year-old co-accused is due to be sentenced on Friday.
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