Overview
- Police say the ambulance was driven from Royal Stoke University Hospital’s main entrance Wednesday at about 8:15pm with a paramedic, a patient and a third passenger in the back.
- Staffordshire Police named Marshall Leese, 31, of Hanley, who is charged with kidnap, theft of a motor vehicle, failing to provide a specimen, dangerous driving, driving without a licence and without insurance, and is due in court Friday.
- Officers tracked the vehicle to an Esso station on the A34 near Chesterton where the driver fled into nearby marshland before a police dog brought him down and he was arrested.
- West Midlands Ambulance Service said no one on board was injured, a second ambulance took the patient on to hospital care, and a welfare check was carried out on the paramedic.
- A joint investigation by the ambulance service and police is under way into how the vehicle was taken, with witnesses asked to call 101 quoting incident 743 of March 25, and local outlets report no keys were left inside.