A 22-year-old man will remain in jail after causing thousands of pounds worth of damage when he crashed stolen cars.

Serial offender Jack Haynes, of Greenfield View in Batley, crashed a Volkswagen Golf and a BMW in two separate incidents last year.

At the time, Haynes, who has 27 previous convictions for 51 offences, was on out licence for a burglary committed in 2014.

On October 24, 2016, he crashed a stolen black Golf on Newsome Road South in Newsome.

Residents on the street saw the car drive into a lamp post, a garden fence and a garden wall.

Thousands of pounds worth of damage was also caused to a Vauxhall Corsa and a Ford Mondeo worth around £2,000 was written off.

Haynes fled the scene but his passenger Aidan Smith, of Shirley Mount in Gomersal, returned and bizarrely claimed to be the driver.

DNA evidence from the airbags later revealed Haynes as the driver.

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And on November 23, 2016, Haynes crashed a BMW on Forge Lane in Dewsbury. Again, Smith was a passenger.

The car, which was worth less than £10,000, had been stolen the day before in a burglary in Greenhill Court in Batley while the victims were home.

Police officers in Dewsbury saw the car, which had its licence plates changed, and a pursuit in excess of 70mph ensued.

On two occasions Haynes was interviewed by police and made no comment.

Earlier this year he pleaded guilty to two counts of dangerous driving and one count of handling stolen goods.

Sentencing him at Leeds Crown Court, Recorder Michael Wheeler said: “I have no doubt that the BMW was stolen because it is a performance car.”

He was sentenced concurrently to 12 months’ imprisonment for handling stolen goods and eight months’ imprisonment for dangerous driving. As he is now in custody for aggravated bodily harm, he will be eligible for release on licence in December 2018.

He was also disqualified from driving for 18 months.

His co-defendant Smith is charged with one count of handling stolen goods and one count of perverting the course of justice. His sentencing was adjourned until November 24 pending a report from the probation service.