Man who smashed up NHS medics’ cars jailed for 12 months

He tried to steal from them as they dealt with the coronavirus pandemic.

A man who smashed his way into NHS medics’ cars as they were parked outside a hospital has been jailed for a year.

Callum Wood, 31, was caught at Middlesbrough’s James Cook University Hospital on Sunday, and handed a 12-month sentence on Monday.

One healthcare assistant finished a 12 hour shift on the wards and found her back windscreen shattered when she was about to drive home.

Other NHS staff also found their vehicles wrecked after ‘risking their lives’ on the front line, prosecutors told Teesside Magistrates Court on Monday.

When security staff approached the Wood, who had been looking for something to steal, he became aggressive towards them.

Officers arrived at the scene at around 2.30pm and Wood was arrested.

Wood, of Middlesbrough, was charged with four counts of attempted theft from a motor vehicle.

Detective Constable Elizabeth Malcolm, from Middlesbrough CID, said: ‘At a time of national crisis, this man has broken into vehicles belonging to NHS staff and tried to steal from them.

‘It’s appalling that anyone would do this at any time, let alone when our NHS colleagues are working flat out and putting themselves at risk for others.

‘Coupled with Callum Wood’s previous offending, he was quite rightly sentenced to three months consecutive for each offence, a total of 12 months imprisonment.

‘We welcome the sentence and want to warn anyone else who thinks it is acceptable to behave in such a manner, or who causes fear or harm in the current climate, we will find those responsible and we will prosecute them.’

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