PARAMEDICS have branded a Spalding teenager “disgusting” after he stole from an ambulance while they treated an elderly woman.
The two-man crew was forced to pin Levi Matthews to the ground – and wait for him to be sprayed with CS gas by police – when he turned violent after being caught inside the vehicle.
Matthews (18) was told he was “very lucky” not to be going to prison as he was sentenced at Spalding Magistrates’ Court.
He was given a 12-month community order with a supervision requirement and told he will be under curfew from 7pm-7am for four months.
Matthews pleaded guilty to the theft of a bottle of Entonox pain relief gas, criminal damage to an ambulance and resisting a police constable at a hearing in January.
On Thursday, the court heard how the ambulance crew had been called to help a woman who had suffered a shoulder injury in a fall on January 13.
Rebecca Ritson, prosecuting, said they were inside the woman’s house when they heard the ambulance door slam and saw someone moving around inside.
One of the crew went outside and reported seeing someone ride off on a bike, leaving someone else still inside the ambulance.
Miss Ritson told how Matthews, of Balmoral Avenue, came out of the side door of the ambulance and a bottle of Entonox fell out of his jacket and rolled down the road.
She said he became increasingly abusive after being taken to the ground to stop him fleeing the scene.
“The police arrived a few minutes later,” she said. “Upon seeing this the man became angrier and violent.”
Miss Ritson said CS spray was used to subdue Matthews, but one of the ambulance crew was also hit.
She read a statement from one of the crew members who said it was “disgusting”.
It continued: “He was putting other people’s lives at risk because the ambulance was out of action while the damage was repaired.”
A metal bar had been damaged on a door during the incident.
Rachel Stevens, defending, said the incident was a “bit of horseplay that had got out of control”.
“He has been left in no doubt he has to change his ways,” she said. “What’s particularly frightening is that he remembers very little about it, to have got so drunk to have jeopardised other people’s lives.
“It’s been a very sobering experience for him.”
Miss Stevens said Matthews had expressed concern for the elderly woman.
Sentencing, magistrate Madge Marshall-Brown said: “We are used to seeing you in the youth court but we did not want to see you in this court.
She added: “These are public servants doing their job. They do not need you harassing them.”