A man who allegedly stole his father’s car while he was in hospital was caught by police after a car chase through Exmouth and Lympstone.
Benjamin Davies allegedly broke into his father Philip’s home in Torbay when he was being treated for heart problems and emptied it of electronic equipment and valuables.
He sold 20 items from his father’s collection of coins and commemorative plates to an antique dealer in Newton Abbot but left his finger print on a souvenir of the Queen Mother’s 80s birthday, Exeter Crown Court was told.
Davies’ sister was checking the house while their father was in hospital and returned to find it looted and his blue Citroen C4 missing from the disabled parking bay outside the front door.
Police spotted the car on the Exmouth seafront and chased it at twice the speed limit to Lympstone, where Davies allegedly crashed into a Skoda before abandoning the vehicle and trying to run off down a country lane.
Davies, aged 32, of no fixed abode, denies burglary and aggravated vehicle taking. He says someone else broke into the house and took the car and he was returning it after tracking it down to Exmouth.
Miss Janice Eagles, prosecuting, said Philip Davies went into hospital in October and his son knew his home at Torridge Avenue, Torquay was empty.
She said Davies fingerprint was found on the back door next to the spot where a PVC panel had been cut out.
The intruder took three televisions, a collection of plates, coins and medals from a safe in his Mr Davies’s bedroom, and bottles of powerful prescription painkillers.
His sister discovered the break in on October 8, and the next day a man calling himself Sam had sold 20 items to an antique dealer in Newton Abbot for £70.
These had all come from the burglary and included the Queen Mother plate which carried Davies’ fingerprint.
The car was reported as stolen and was spotted by police in Exmouth on October 11 and pursued by two police in a marked car with flashing lights from the seafront to the Saddlers Arms turning on the Exeter Road.
During the pursuit the Citroen almost hit a lorry and went at 60 mph in 30 mph zones. It collided with a Skoda on the lane leading down to Lympstone.
The car was abandoned near the church with both doors open and two people were seen running away and chased down by police. One was Davies and the other his girlfriend, who initially gave her name as Eliza Doolittle.
One of the missing bottles of painkiller liquid was found in a hedge by the church and the other two in the car.
Miss Eagles said:"Our case is that Davies was not allowed to be at his father’s house while he was in hospital but he entered the premises uninvited and as a trespasser. The last time he stayed there was Christmas 2015, when he had nowhere else to go."
She said Davies told police he had found out who had burgled the house from contacts and persuaded them to give back the car, which he was returning when he was spotted by police. He fled because he is a disqualified driver.
He claimed his fingerprints got onto the door and the plate when he had previously been living at the house.