A MAN who died in a car crash after a police chase was on licence from prison at the time, a court has heard.
Ryan Staple, 20, died on January 19 last year, six days after suffering brain injuries when he crashed into another car at the junction of Lennard Road and Kent House Road, Penge.
Mr Staple, of Charles Cobb Gardens, Waddon, had been stopped by three police officers in an unmarked car at around 11.15pm on January 13, after they saw him speeding alongside another car.
He had driven off when police approached his window and, after a high-speed chase, dodged them a second time by reversing out of their way.
Driving at around 83mph, he then bounced off a parked Fiat before crashing into a Ford waiting at the traffic lights, the court heard.
At the second and last day of his inquest on Tuesday, Croydon Coroners' Court heard how Mr Staple had only a provisional driving license and the Mini Cooper he was driving was stolen.
Deputy coroner Selena Lynch said: "We will never know but that may explain why he was not willing to stop for the police officers."
Details of the offence for which he was on licence were not given in court. The Advertiser understands it was relatively low-level.
Mr Staple was not wearing a seatbelt when his car crashed, the court heard. And his airbag did not deploy, probably due to the nature of the collision.
"I suspect that if a seat belt had been worn you would have a vastly different situation," collision investigator PC Andrew Osborne told the court.
Jurors were told there were communication problems between the police officers and their command centre during the chase. Communication, which was by radio, stopped altogether after officers got out of their car before Mr Staple sped off a second time.
But the court had been told officers acted "in accordance with the operating procedure," Mrs Lynch reminded jurors in her summing-up. Jurors returned a verdict of accidental death after roughly half an hour of deliberation.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said last year officers had "no case to answer" over the incident, accepting there were communication problems.
The court heard how, after an initial chase, officers blocked Mr Staple's car with theirs and officers Stuart Ormsby and Andrew West got out of the car, thinking they would be making arrests.
But Mr Staple then reversed the car, with Officer Ormsby "of the view the driver was trying to knock him down," said Mrs Lynch.
She added: "We cannot know whether or not he was aiming for the police officer."
Mr Staple sped off again and was driving the wrong way up the road when, seconds later, he crashed into the Ford C-Max driven by Gurvinder Bhugal, who had just left the HSBC sports centre in Lennard Road.
Ms Bhugal, who gave evidence in court on Tuesday, suffered only minor injuries and has recovered.
Residents of Lennard Road described hearing a huge noise in the run-up to the smash.
Julie Speer told the court in a statement: "The noise of the car was like something I have heard at Brands Hatch [race track]."
Mr Staple, who was unemployed, was taken to King's College Hospital, south London, where he never regained consciousness.
His cause of death was given as severe traumatic brain injuries.
Mrs Lynch added: "This was a very sad death and a very tragic waste life."
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