A MAN has been jailed after crashing a van with £1,473 of stolen biscuits onboard during a police chase.

Connor Aird was part of a gang of up to five men who cut through a wagon tarpaulin at dead of night and loaded the Hershey’s cookies on to a Mercedes Sprinter, Bradford Crown Court heard today.

The driver was ordered to stay in his cab during the theft from the vehicle parked over-night at Bradford’s Euroway Industrial Estate.

Prosecutor Anthony Moore said that Aird, 22, of Winrose Garth, Belle Isle, Leeds, had pleaded guilty to theft, dangerous driving and driving uninsured and without a licence.

The Polish lorry driver, working for Kaszkowiak Transport, was sleeping in his vehicle overnight ready to make a morning delivery when he was disturbed by intruders in the trailer.

The gang had cut their way in at around 3am on May 19 last year and were off-loading boxes of cookies into their van.

The driver remained in his cab until they had left and then called the police.

Mr Moore said the getaway van was seen near Junction 27 of the M621. It was pursued by the police into Beeston, Leeds, where a stinger device was deployed, deflating its tyres.

Aird continued to flee in the “unbalanced and unstable” vehicle, going the wrong way down a three-lane dual carriageway. His passenger jumped out, skidded across the road, got up and ran away.

Aird then lost control of the van, veered on to the kerb and crashed into a wooden fenc-ing post.

He ran off into a retail park but was caught and arrested.

The abandoned van contained numerous boxes of cookies stolen from the wagon in Bradford. They were valued at £1,473 and the thieves had done £1,500 to the lorry by cutting into it.

Aird at first claimed he was forced to carry out the theft and held at knifepoint by his accomplices during the police chase.

The lorry driver was left feeling shocked and scared, Mr Moore said.

In mitigation, it was stated that Aird had a young child and cared for his grandparents.

He had no previous convictions and had overcome the drugs problem he had at the time.

He was in full-time employment and had made big changes to his life in the past year.

But Recorder Judy Dawson said he had driven dangerously after damaging the lorry and stealing from it.

Aird was jailed for eight months and banned from driving for 22 months.