Video shows dramatic conclusion to high-speed police chase
By: Video has been released by police showing the dramatic conclusion to a high-speed chase on the A23.
Officers were in pursuit of a man suspected of committing a series of burglaries, theft and criminal damage in Brighton and Hove.
After reports came in of a car being stolen from Hove, the vehicle, a Kia Sportage, was located. The driver was Daniel Laverty.
With the police helicopter following from the air and response cars gaining on the 33-year-old from Battersea, Laverty's crashed the car and was arrested.
Pinned down to the floor, the criminal told officers, "I've broken my wrist, I've broken my wrist."
Two days later, in the early hours of Tuesday, 17 January, Laverty and an accomplice embarked on a stealing spree across Brighton and Hove, starting with damage and theft from a vehicle in Gordon Close, a burglary in Rutland Gardens – during which a car was stolen – and another burglary at a property in Clermont Terrace.
The offenders were interrupted during one of the burglaries by a woman who went downstairs to find them in her house, while her two children and a friend slept upstairs.
She chased them from the building, where she was threatened with violence.
Laverty was arrested and subsequently charged with two counts of burglary, three counts of theft, theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, driving without insurance, theft from a motor vehicle, failing to provide a specimen for analysis and possession of Class A drugs.
At Court, Laverty pleaded or was found guilty of all charges, except one count of theft, which was discontinued and entered as not guilty.
Throughout the trial, Laverty claimed to have no knowledge of any of the burglaries or vehicle thefts, despite being captured on doorbell footage at the scene of one of the crimes.
Detective Constable Josh Bellamy said, "Daniel Laverty hoped that a jury would believe his lies - that he was an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time, attempting to paint himself as just as helpless as his victims.
“I am pleased that those lies were not believed. He has been rightly convicted for what was a selfish spree targeting innocent people in their homes."
Laverty was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.