Car thief jailed for five years for care home crash

CAR thief who left a 94-year-old woman with a broken neck and spine after smashing into a care home during a police chase has been jailed for more than five years.

- ROB KENNEDY

Sam Asgari-Tabar exceeded 100mph in a bid to flee from police, in a car he had stolen with Reece Parish, when he lost control and crashed into the care home building.

A 94-year-old woman living in Highcliffe Care Home in Witherwack, Sunderland, was badly injured and had to be dug out of rubble when the BMW slammed into the care home with so much force a ceiling collapsed on top of her.

Newcastle Crown Court heard the woman, who has dementia, suffered fractured vertebrae and had to be pulled from rubble by firefighters.

Several other elderly residents were also injured and the building suffered £260,000 of damage and the home lost £411,000, the court heard.

As Asgari-Tabar was locked up, it emerged he was already banned from the roads for drug driving and on a suspended sentence for assaulting his parents. Now he has been jailed for five years and eight months for robbery and causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and was also given a driving ban of seven years and seven months.

Parish was sentenced to three years and one month for the robbery and a separate offence of violent disorder during the Sunderland riots.