It's a fair copter! Millionaire businessman pursues thief for 2 hours ... from his helicopter
By STEPHANIE CONDRON and ANDY YOUNG
Last updated at 12:46 AM on 24th May 2009
When millionaire businessman Jeremy Taylor spotted a petty thief raiding his yard he was in the perfect place to do something about it...hovering right above the crook in his helicopter.
Mr Taylor, 38, had just taken off from his helipad on a business trip when he looked down and saw a suspicious white van at his timber yard and realised he was being burgled.
And in a scene straight out of an action-packed police drama, he embarked on a 21⁄2-hour chase in his £1.9million helicopter as the thief tried to escape with his property down country roads.
Jeremy Taylor with his partner Eimear Fitzpatrick
At one stage, the burglar tried to hide in a wood but Mr Taylor flushed him out by hovering over the trees.
Mr Taylor even involved his mother and sister in the chase across the Norfolk countryside by telephoning them from his cockpit and they too went after the thief, in their cars.
The man eventually abandoned his van and fled on foot but was later arrested by police at his home after Mr Taylor passed on the van’s registration number.
But after all his efforts, Mr Taylor was to be disappointed when magistrates gave the thief only a conditional discharge.
The chase cost Mr Taylor £2,500 in helicopter fuel – far more than the value of stolen goods – but he said it was the principle of trying to catch the thief that was important.
He said: ‘I did not want to let him get away when I had the opportunity to go after him. I was determined to catch him because I have had break-ins before – but I have never had to chase anyone in a helicopter before.
High Drama: Mr Taylor's £1.9million helicopter. The chase cost him £2,500 in fuel
‘It annoys me that people are prepared to break in to other people’s property. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.’
Mr Taylor, a divorced father of four, runs a dumper-truck firm from his father’s farm at Binham in North Norfolk. He usually uses his 11-seat Augusta 119 helicopter for ferrying employees around.
He recalled: ‘I had just taken off in my helicopter for a business trip to Northern Ireland and was at about 200ft when I noticed my yard gates were open.
‘The van sped off and I ended up chasing it around half of North Norfolk. The van was probably going at about 50 to 60 miles per hour but the helicopter is capable of 190 mph and I was overhead or sitting behind him all the time.
‘I was cross. I thought: “You are not going to get away from me.” The thief knew I was following him all the time.’
Mr Taylor tracked the thief in his van from Binham to the seaside town of Wells-next-the-Sea, where the man tried to lose him by doing a U-turn.
The man then headed along country roads towards the market town of Fakenham and tried to lose the helicopter in traffic.
Mr Taylor said: ‘I was flying over Fakenham at about 2,000ft – the law says you have to be over 1,500ft in a congested area. You can see a van on the road below from 2,000ft with the naked eye. But all white vans look the same at that height and there were quite a few of them in the town.
‘Things were easier in the open countryside when I was able to fly at 500ft and keep a closer eye on him.’
At one stage in the chase, Mr Taylor hovered above woods for 20 minutes waiting for the thief to break cover.
During the pursuit he telephoned his sister Caroline, 28, and mother Anne via the helicopter’s satellite phone and asked for their help.
The women set out by car while Mr Taylor directed them from the air and when the two caught up with the van on the outskirts of Fakenham, they noted the van’s registration.
Mr Taylor’s mother’s part in the hair-raising chase ended when she ran out of petrol.
The helicopter hangar
The burglar eventually abandoned his van at the village of Stody and fled on foot. Mr Taylor landed his helicopter and called in police, who arrested the man at his home in nearby Briston after tracing him via his number plate.
On Friday, Justin Holden, 28, admitted theft of firewood logs, pitchforks, diesel cans and a tractor battery and was given a conditional discharge by King’s Lynn magistrates.
Mr Taylor, whose partner is Eimear Fitzpatrick, said he was disappointed at the punishment, saying: ‘I am just annoyed that he got away with a slap on the wrist from the court.’
PC Jason Pegden of Norfolk Police said: ‘I’ve never come across anything like this before.’
The chase echoes an episode of The Bill when DCI Jack Meadows tracked a suspect through London from the air while, on the ground, two PCs gave chase in a patrol car.
And in the US TV drama 24, agent Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, used a helicopter to target gunmen on an oil rig.
