Prolific car thief David McTaggart has jail term extended

A prolific car thief who led police on a high-speed chase through a Wolverhampton housing estate has had his jail sentence extended.

David McTaggart, who is currently serving a four-year prison term for stealing £265,000 worth of high-speed cars, has had an extra 12 months added to his sentence.

McTaggart, aged 23, sped away from police through parts of Bushbury and Low Hill in a stolen black Jaguar sports car in July.

A pursuing police car filmed him in the £40,000 Jaguar reaching speeds of 80mph along residential streets, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

His car lifted off the ground after careering over speed humps, before he drove the wrong way around Showell Circus in Low Hill.

McTaggart, a paranoid schizophrenic formerly of Greenwood Road, in Oxley, admitted dangerous driving after taking a vehicle without consent, driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance.

It was McTaggart's fourth conviction for dangerous driving and his 11th for driving whilst disqualified.

In August he was jailed for four years after a string of car key burglaries in Tettenhall, Aldersley and Portobello areas of Wolverhampton, as well as Kingswinford, Dudley and Staffordshire.

Mr Howard Searle, prosecuting, told the court yesterday that police spotted McTaggart driving the stolen car at around 12.30am on July 13 on the A449 Stafford road.

They followed him along Cottage Lane in Bushbury when the Jaguar accelerated away from police, sparking the high-speed pursuit along Primrose Avenue, Fordhouses Lane, Whetstone Road, Bushbury Lane, Hammond Avenue, to Showell Circus and Fifth Avenue.

They lost him on the A460 but the two occupants abandoned the car after being spotted by a police helicopter at 4am in Chapel Ash.

Mr Stephen Blower, defending, said McTaggart's illness left him "susceptible" to bad influences and he had borrowed the car from someone else who had stolen it.

Judge Nicholas Webb told McTaggart: "If you go on driving like this you will kill yourself or somebody else."