A burglar who was travelling on the back of the Polaris all-terrain vehicle he had stolen, when his accomplice was killed - told police he had no idea who his pal was. Mark Sharp died in a multi-vehicle crash on the A19 near Thimbleby, in North Yorkshire in 2021, after he and Paul Barnes stole the Polaris from a farm nearby. As Mark Sharp was being given emergency CPR on the roadside, Barnes told police he didn't know his teenage pal.
Barnes, 33, was taken to hospital where he denied knowing anything about the crash he had just walked away from. He was treated for head injuries and later arrested for failing to give a sample. Mark Sharp, from Norton , was 17 when he died in the crash.
He and Paul Barnes had stolen £11,000 of equipment from a tractor shed on a farm in Thimbleby, shortly after midnight on July 28, 2021. Three years after his tragic death, Paul Barnes appeared at Teesside Crown Court to be sentenced for the farm burglary and for aggravated vehicle-taking, where death is caused. Barnes received a suspended sentenced in 2022 , for failing to provide a blood sample, after the crash.
On Friday, Jonathan Gittins, prosecuting, told the court: "If circumstances were different, both men would be defendants in this case." He said that the farmer had put his mowing machine away in his tractor shed, and secured the shed door with a metal bar. When he put his hens in their barn before midnight, he did not notice anything amiss.
But half an hour later, Paul Barnes and Mark .