A WEST Somerset man who was a passenger in a stolen car which crashed and killed the teenage driver has been spared an immediate jail sentence because of the serious injuries he suffered.

Ricky Allison was sat alongside 18-year-old Conner Palmer, who died when the stolen Ford M-Max hit a wall in Clifton Terrace, Taunton, during a police chase in the early hours of October 17, 2019.

He had earlier used bank cards stolen along with two sets of car keys from a family home in South Street, Taunton, to make two contactless purchases of cigarettes and alcohol at filling stations.

Allison, aged 39, of The Parade, Minehead, admitted aggravated vehicle taking and two counts of fraud when he appeared in Exeter Crown Court,

Judge Stephen Climie gave Allison a nine-month jail term suspended for two years and also banned him from driving for two years.

Allison was cleared of taking part in the burglary in which the car was stolen.

Samuel Ellis, aged 28, of Taunton, denied aggravated vehicle taking and was found not guilty after the prosecution dropped the charge.

Ellis suffered even more serious injuries in the crash and was left paraplegic.

Both court cases had been delayed by more than four years because of the extent of the defendants’ disabilities.

Judge Climie told Allison there had to be a jail sentence to mark the fact that a man had died in the incident but said he was suspending it because of the head injuries Allison suffered, which had left him unable to work and living in a YMCA.

The judge said: “Taking a vehicle almost always will have a degree of risk or harm, whether to the criminal himself or to the public.

“In this case the risk evidently has come to pass and to some extent there was summary justice for those involved in terms of the serious injury and death which followed.

“You find yourself very seriously limited by a head and brain injury.

“I take into account you now live a very different life from that which you would otherwise have been able to enjoy.”

Derek Perry, prosecuting, said a house in South Street, Taunton, was burgled on the night of the crash and items taken including the bank cards and two sets of car keys.

Another man, Kurt Bishop, aged 17 at the time, later admitted burglary and aggravated vehicle taking in a second stolen car and received a suspended sentence at Taunton Crown Court in 2022.

Palmer took the Ford and had Allison as his front seat passenger with Mr Ellis in the back when he engaged in a high-speed police chase which resulted in the fatal accident at 2.30 am.

Allison had made two purchases of cigarettes and alcohol, both just below the contactless limit of £30, in between the burglary and the accident.

Harry Ahuja, representing Allison, said he had not taken part in the burglary and had suffered serious changes to his lifestyle as a result of his injuries which left him with mental health and short term memory issues, rendering him unable to work.

He now led a solitary life with little contact with friends or family and was reliant on support from the YMCA.

Patrick Mason, for Ellis, said he was a paraplegic as a result of his injuries and his condition had been deteriorating in recent months.

An inquest in December, 2022, recorded a verdict of misadventure on factory worker Palmer, of Friarn Avenue, Bridgwater, who was cut out of the car but died in hospital from traumatic injuries.

Blood samples showed he was three times the legal drink drive limit.

Ellis gave evidence at the inquest and said he was crying in the back seat and ringing family members telling them ‘there is going to be a crash’.

He said Palmer and the front seat passenger were not bothered about the police car and were laughing as they tried to get away.