Car thief wrecked my life says disabled woman
A father who wrecked the life of a disabled woman was starting a two-year sentence today.
Sean O’Connor and two accomplices stole a £27,000 specially-adapted Honda Civic of the victim, which contained her purpose-built wheelchair and has not been found, a judge was told.
The masked raiders had already failed in an attempt to take a BMW 5 series from the driveway of the next door house in West Bromwich, during the early hours of September 4, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
The vehicle belonged to another woman who was away at the time but was alerted by the house’s alarm system, which fed security camera footage to her mobile phone.
It showed three men trying unsuccessfully to start the engine with a key programming device held by O’Connor, revealed Mrs Sati Ruck, prosecuting.
The woman contacted her brother who alerted police.
Around half an hour later the gang struck again, this time in Hollyoak Close, Oldbury, where they arrived in an £11,000 Ford Focus stolen from an address in Cooksey Lane, Perry Barr several days earlier. They disturbed a neighbour who called police.
O’Connor was found hiding behind a car on the driveway of another house, explained Mrs Ruck.
The disabled woman, in a victim impact statement read to the court, said: “My independence has been stolen. This has messed up my whole life.”
Miss Caroline Harris, defending, said O’Connor, 30, who admitted car theft and two attempted thefts, had been offered £400 for his night’s work and ‘foolishly gave into temptation’.
