Alison Whelan Who Stole Ferry in Devon Shouting 'I'm Jack Sparrow!' Jailed

Faline · #1 ● 09-23-2012, 03:15 PM

A woman who caused thousands of pounds of damage after stealing a passenger ferry and crashing into boats whilst high on drink and drugs and shouting "I'm Jack Sparrow" has been jailed.

Alison Whelan was on a two-day bender when she climbed onto the moored 100-seater Dart Princess in Dartmouth, Devon.

The 51-year-old was so drunk on Lambrini she dialled 999 and officers raced to the scene but then unmoored the 45ft vessel and started drifting away.

She was heard shouting "I'm Jack Sparrow" and "I'm A Pirate" as she made her escape on the double-decker ferry.

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But the boat then began hitting other vessels ''like a pinball machine'' - including a £70,000 catamaran, Torquay Magistrates Court in Devon heard.

The boat finally came to rest an hour later a mile upstream where lifeboats arrived to tow Whelan and her accomplice back to the harbour.

When arrested she claimed that she ''would have ended up in St Tropez'' if she hadn't been caught.

More than 30 ambulance, police, coastguard and RNLI officers were drafted in during the incident on 10 September last year.

Whelan, of Paignton, Devon, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and was jailed for 122 days.

Speaking after the hearing, PC Clare Pearson said: ''This lady put the police, ambulance and coastguard to an awful lot of trouble.

''The amount of people called out to recover the boat and the damage caused to other vessels made it quite an expensive night."

Whelan had been drinking Lambrini and eating poisonous hallucinogenic plants when she boarded the ferry which is usually used for wildlife cruises in the Torbay area but had been hired for a different job and was moored in nearby Kingswear.