A serial car thief is back behind bars after stealing a car from an Uber Eats delivery driver and taking it on a 52-mile joyride to Forfar.
Gerard Graham jumped into the vehicle while the driver was making a delivery and drove it all the way to Angus – where he crashed it into a building.
Two days later he helped himself to another car in Forfar and drove it back up to the north-east where he led police on a high-speed chase which ended in another crash, this time with a tree.
The serial offender, 32, had previously been banned from driving until September 2023 at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, the court was told.
Stole car and crashed it into wall
Fiscal depute Rebecca Thomson said the first car, a silver Volkswagen, was taken from Castle Street in Aberdeen at 12.25am on December 11 last year after its driver left the keys in the ignition while making an Uber Eats delivery.
“The driver returned one minute later to find the vehicle was gone,” Miss Thomson said.
“The vehicle was later found by police having collided with a building, on Queen Street in Forfar.”
Two days later, while still in Forfar, Graham helped himself to an insecure Dacia Duster parked outside Halfords in Queenswell Road.
Its owner had initially locked the vehicle but after returning to grab a hat on a break from work and inadvertently left the keys in the unlocked car.
Just an hour later he returned to find the car was gone.
Officers traced it on the A92 Dundee-to-Aberdeen road near Badentoy at 1pm the following day.
Sped past school at 60mph
“The police officers signalled for the vehicle to stop but the accused failed to do so and instead accelerated,” the court was told.
“He turned off the A92, into Portlethen, and entered the roundabout at Cookston Road in the wrong direction, continued round the roundabout before exiting from the same position which he had entered.”
Graham then sped into Portlehten at speeds of 70mph, turned right onto Muirend Road, overtook several vehicles, did a handbrake turn, and continued along Muirend Road.
Here he turned onto Bruntland Road before exiting the town and passing Portlethen Academy at speeds of up to 60mph.
Moments later he lost control of the car while trying to take a right-hand bend at excessive speed and collided with a tree.
Appearing in the dock from custody, he admitted a total of 10 charges – two of stealing a car, two of driving while disqualified, one of dangerous driving, two of driving without insurance, two of failing to identify himself to officers, one failure to stop for police.
Asked sheriff to ‘take a risk’ and free him
His defence agent Iain McGregor said his client was “well aware” that a further custodial sentence was likely however asked that a “risk be taken” and Graham be given the chance to address his issues with drugs and alcohol in the community.
“He was last given a community payback order in December 2015 and it was successful,” the solicitor said. “Since then he has served numerous periods of imprisonment which doesn’t appear to have changed anything as far as he is concerned.
“He has had a period of reflection and he has come to the view that something needs to change.”
Sheriff Andrew Miller could find no alternative to imprisonment.
He jailed Graham, a prisoner of HMP Grampian, for 20 months, backdated to December, and banned him from the road for two years and 10 months.
He must sit an extended test to regain his licence.
Previous ‘inept’ joyride ended in jail
Graham was jailed for 10 months and banned from the road for three years in March 2022 after he stole a minibus to drive home from prison.
On that occasion, the court was told he was “too impatient” to wait the 20 minutes for a bus back to the city.
Graham was branded “inept” after he was caught because he left his release papers on the front seat.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.
