South Shields bus thief jailed for late-night joyride
- Published
Youll caused £2,000 of damage to the Stagecoach bus
A man who stole a bus and went on a late-night joyride around town has been jailed.
Shane Youll, 32, was caught on on-board cameras manoeuvring the single-decker out of a South Tyneside depot.
He mounted kerbs, strayed into the middle of the road and crashed into railings before police found him waiting at traffic lights.
Youll, from County Durham, was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail and banned from driving for 18 months.
He was also fined £2,025.
Youll, who was uninsured, went on what Northumbria Police called a "joyride around South Tyneside" just after 01:00 GMT on 6 January.
Officers were alerted when he triggered an alarm at the depot on Dean Road in South Shields. They found him in the Stagecoach bus waiting at traffic lights on Newcastle Road in the town.
Sgt Nicholas Watt said it had been a "brazen theft".
"He mounted kerbs, drifted all over the road, and crashed into a number of objects on the roadside that significantly damaged the bus," he said.
Youll, from Cotswold Terrace, Stanley, was convicted of taking a motor vehicle without consent, driving with no insurance and driving without a licence.