Peterlee man on run (From The Northern Echo)

Peterlee man on run

7:00pm Friday 12th March 2010 in

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A PRISONER jailed for his part in a high-speed motorway crash in which a man died has escaped from jail.

Neil Bennett went on the run from HMP Sudbury on Thursday. The 28-year-old from Peterlee, in County Durham, was serving a sentence of 45-months imprisonment at the open prison in Derbyshire.

Bennett was jailed in July 2009 at Derby Crown Court for aggravated vehicle taking following a crash on the M1 near Chesterfield the previous November.

He was in a stolen Vauxhall Corsa alongside 25-year-old Steven Bellerby, of Horden, and Shaun Mould, 31, of Southampton, which overturned during a 100mph police chase.

Mr Bellerby died when he was thrown from the wreckage and Bennett and Mould fled the scene on foot.

Bennett, of Bailey Rise, Peterlee, was jailed after admitting aggravated vehicle taking and driving while disqualified.

Police described the fugitive as beng white, 5ft 5 tall, of proportionate build, with short brown hair and blue eyes.

Last month, convicted murderer Gary Gibbon, also from Peterlee, also escaped from HMP Sudbury and was on the loose for four days before handing him in at Durham City police station.