A prolific thief has been jailed after he fled from a rural farm shop in his Vauxhall Corsa – with a staff member on the bonnet.
Alan Lewis, 58, was banned from driving at the time of the shocking incident at Mainsgill Farm in Richmond where staff recognised him from a shoplifting incident two weeks earlier when he bagged nearly £900 of goods, York Crown Court heard.
When he returned to the shop on November 23 last year, ostensibly for another shoplifting spree, staff members confronted him, at which point he ran out of the shop as they pursued him to his car.
Prosecutor Brooke Morrison said that one quick-thinking staff member ran to the car park exit in an attempt to close the gates before Lewis drove off.

Credit: Mainsgill Farm Shop