A hardened criminal with a long history of violence has been branded a “dangerous” offender after “carjacking” a man’s Mazda, driving off in it at speed and crashing straight into a petrol pump.
The car “wiped out” the petrol pump and ended up on top of it during the “highly dangerous” incident. The Mazda was written off and damage estimated at £20,000 was caused to the petrol pump. It was a miracle that the petrol pump crash was not more serious, Hull Crown Court heard.
Jamie Coggin, 37, of no fixed address, but from Hull, admitted robbery, dangerous driving and drink-driving on March 9. Joel Vieira, 35, of Westcott Street, east Hull, admitted robbery.
Maya Hanson, prosecuting, said that, at about 8.25pm, a man stopped his blue Mazda at red traffic lights at the junction of Holderness Road and Dansom Lane South on Clarence Street, ready to turn right into Holderness Road, east Hull.
He was approached by two men. They stood next to the driver’s side door and one of them was trying to say something.
(Image: Humberside Police)
The man pressed the button to open the window so that he could see what they wanted. Coggin put his right hand into the car and pulled the keys out of the ignition. The driver got out of the car and confronted the men and tried to reach to grab his car keys out of Coggin’s hand. Coggin moved his hand back so that the driver could not get the keys and told him: “Do you want to get hurt?”
Vieira told the man: “We will hurt you” and he pulled out an 18-inch-long metal bat from the side of his waistband. “He was holding a pint glass in his right hand,” said Miss Hanson.
After being threatened by Vieira, the man retreated and walked away. As he was walking away, Vieira threw the pint glass towards the man and a piece of glass hit his foot. The driver continued walking and turned right on to Holderness Road.
“As he was walking, he noticed his vehicle being driven past him in the same direction as he was walking,” said Miss Hanson. He saw that Coggin was driving the car and Vieira was in the passenger seat. He called the police.
While he was on the phone to the police, the Mazda was driven onto the forecourt of a BP petrol station on Southcoates Lane. “The vehicle was being driven at such speed and did not appear to want to stop,” said Miss Hanson.
“Instead, the vehicle accelerated immediately at the central pump of the forecourt. When the car hit the fuel pump, the fuel pump fell in the opposite direction from the car, with the car mounting the pump’s kerb and then coming to a stop on top of the pump.”
(Image: Submitted)
Vieira got out of the passenger seat and tried to buy some cigarettes but the female cashier refused him. The two men tried to dislodge the car from the pump before police arrested them. Items from the car belonging to the owner were removed by Coggin and Vieira, including an iPhone, an iPod, Ray-Ban sunglasses and keys.
A breath test revealed that Coggin had 61mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg. The car had been written off and the estimated damage to the petrol pump during the “highly dangerous manoeuvre” was £20,000.
During police interview, both defendants did not comment. Vieira said in a statement that he was heavily drunk and he blamed Coggin for planning the offences. He said that he got in the car because he “wasn’t sure what was happening”.
Coggin had convictions for 16 previous offences, including robbery in December 2022, when he had been jailed for two years after a supermarket raid in which he brandished a blade, and robbery in December 2007, when he was jailed for five-and-a-half years after threatening two people in their home with a claw hammer.
He had been jailed for six years in 2013 for wounding with intent, involving stabbing a man in the back who had refused to repay a £20 loan. He had been jailed for 20 months in 2019 for possessing a blade.
Vieira had convictions for two previous offences, for failing to provide a breath specimen in July 2023 and drink-driving in September last year.
Jazmine Lee, mitigating, said that Coggin pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and he accepted his role in the incident. “He has held his hand up very early to these offences and has expressed some remorse,” said Miss Lee.
“He accepts that it was completely uncalled for and he feels sick at what he has done.” Coggin and Vieira had been socialising and had drunk “copious amounts of alcohol” before the “senseless, opportunist” incident.
Coggin was in a cycle of being released from prison and turning back to alcohol and drugs. At the time, he had just been released from custody and was homeless again. “He turned to alcohol and drugs,” said Miss Lee. “This is a dreadful pattern that he has found himself in. He has an appalling record for violence and weapons-based offending.”
David Godfrey, representing Vieira, said that it would be difficult to find a man whose history and personality was so dislocated from the offence. He had been “out on a bender” with Coggin after “randomly” meeting him for the first time that day. “They started drinking together heavily,” said Mr Godfrey.
Vieira was brought up in Portugal and Spain and he came to this country in 2019. He had worked as a postman for three-and-a-half years and he married his wife in January 2022. There were lots of references for him.
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“There has always been this cloud over him and that’s alcohol,” said Mr Godfrey. “He got himself involved in this. He is a thoroughly decent human being who has done a horrific thing while in drink. He is sorry.”
Judge Mark Bury said that the two men decided to “carjack” the Mazda after it stopped at traffic lights. The driver was approached “all of a sudden”. The car was driven off and crashed into and “wiped out” a petrol pump – “completely wrecking it” during an “incredibly dangerous” incident.
Coggin was jailed for six years and he will be on extended licence of four years after his release from prison. “You are a dangerous offender,” said Judge Bury. Coggin was banned from driving for seven years and four months and he will have to pass an extended retest before he can drive legally again. Vieira was jailed for three years.