An alarming video has been released, showing a driver of a stolen bus recklessly speeding through the West Midlands, running through red lights and driving on the wrong side of the road. The dashboard footage taken from the chasing police car shows the single-decker vehicle going the wrong way on a roundabout, mounting pavements and hitting walls during the 12-mile joyride.
The bus was eventually stopped after officers used a Stinger to puncture one of its wheels in the town of Bilston after two failed attempts to stop the vehicle.
The video was released by West Midlands Police after the three people inside the bus, John Burton, 38, Simon Loveland, 39 and Thomas Tibbs, 21, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle-taking on the grounds of driving or being carried at Wolverhampton Crown Court earlier this month.
The men denied stealing the bus from a yard in Coseley, close to where they were stopped, claiming they found it outside a pub where they had been drinking.
The men managed to cause more than £10,000-worth of damage while on the rampage.
Burton, who had 37 previous convictions and was the one driving the bus, was sentenced to 14 months in prison and disqualified from driving for 13 months. Loveland, who had 31 prior convictions, was sentenced to 12 months and disqualified from driving for 18 months, with Tibbs handed a six-month sentence and disqualified from driving for 15 months.
