A MAN who crashed a funeral van, assaulted police officers and committed other offences has been jailed for a total of eight months.

Robert James McCrystal, aged 25, of Overlands Road, Weymouth, was sentenced at the town’s magistrates court.

McCrystal admitted a string of offences including aggravated vehicle taking, driving while disqualified and without insurance, failing to stop and failing to report an accident, and not surrendering to bail.

He also pleaded guilty to two charges of shoplifting, using threatening words or behaviour, two charges of assaulting a police officer and a burglary.

The court heard that on July 21 last year McCrystal took a white van, which was used by Co-operative Funeralcare in Weymouth to transport bodies from hospitals to the funeral parlour. The van was empty at the time of the offence.

He crashed the van into parked cars in Camp Road, Wyke Regis, before fleeing.

Magistrates deemed the offences so serious that a term of imprisonment was required.

McCrystal was jailed for a total of four months for offences linked to the taking of the funeral van and crashing it. There was no separate penalty for driving without insurance.

A spokesman for Co-operative Funeralcare, said: “We are pleased with the outcome of the case.”

Camp Road resident Kim Hutchinson saw the aftermath of the accident.

She said: “I heard a bang and looked out. I saw a man get out of the car and run away and I thought he was going to go and get some help and he would come back.”

Her husband Dave Hutchinson said: “For the damage he did the sentence doesn’t seem a lot.”

Another Camp Road resident, who did not wish to be named, said the sentence was far too lenient.

She said: “I think he deserves what he gets. Stealing from a funeral home is the lowest you can get.”

In a separate incident on December 4, McCrystal stole bottles of gin and vodka from the George Inn pub on Weymouth Harbourside and 10 bottles of lager from a shop in nearby St Edmund Street.

He was given two months in prison for each offence to run concurrently.

There was a further two-month prison sentence, running concurrently, for a burglary at the pirate-themed Taste restaurant in Weymouth town centre on January 12 this year when McCrystal broke in and stole a computer memory stick.

For offences a few days later in Weymouth when McCrystal assaulted two police officers and behaved threateningly, he was jailed for a total of four months, running consecutively – making a total overall sentence of eight months’ jail time.

Taste owner Robert Parkin said: “We were shocked to hear that he had been sent down. I’m glad, because he deserves it.”