A MAN from West Dorset who stole a truck and led police on a 25-mile car chase when he was high on drugs has been jailed for 12 months.

Ricky Lee Thompson, aged 23, of Toll House Mews, Bridport, was sentenced at Dorchester Crown Court after pleading guilty to aggravated vehicle taking on January 3 this year.

At the time of the offence Thompson was on bail for another charge of stealing a Land Rover Freelander and failing to surrender to custody at Weymouth Magistrates Court on December 31, 2014.

He admitted those offences and was also sentenced to three months and two months, to run concurrently with the 12-month prison sentence.

James Kellam, prosecuting, told the court police were informed that a vehicle, a Ford Transit flat-bed truck, had been stolen from an address in Somerset in the early hours of January 3.

Mr Kellam said police became aware the truck was parked in a car park in Lyme Regis and as they approached the vehicle, they saw it being driven away by Thompson, and that he crashed the vehicle into a number of nearby parked cars as they gave chase.

Mr Kellam said Thompson was driving at speeds “in excess of 60mph in 30mph zones” around Lyme Regis, before going the wrong side of the road at the Hunter’s Lodge junction on the A35 as the chase continued.

Thompson was finally detained by police after he crashed the vehicle and tried to escape on foot, but was “rugby tackled” by a chasing police officer, Mr Kellam said.

Mr Kellam said that in his police interview, Thompson admitted to taking the truck and also having taken the drug M-Cat, otherwise known as mephedrone, before he started driving on that night.

The court heard that Thompson had 81 previous convictions which included theft, burglary, taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent and driving whilst disqualified and without insurance.

In mitigation, defence barrister Jamie Porter told the court Thompson thought he was taking a “legitimate, legal high” and “thought it was something like a Red Bull plus tablet”.

Mr Porter added: “He regrets his actions.”

Passing down the sentence, Judge Peter Johnson said: “Essentially what you did was extremely dangerous.”

Thompson was also disqualified from driving for two years and ordered to sit an extended driving test after his ban.