A 20-year-old Kingswinford man who took part in a car-jacking, which saw a young woman run over after being dragged from her vehicle, has been locked up for nearly five years.

Richard Halford and his accomplice lured the victim to a meeting to discuss a debt, but the victim fortunately escaped serious injury as she unsuccessfully tried to stop them getting away with the car.

She had paid the two men £150 after linking up with them near Crestwood School, in Bromley Lane, before being ordered to drive to a number of locations in the area.

But the woman, who is in her 20’s, was then grabbed round the throat by Halford and told: “You think you can mess my mate about. I have got a knife and I will stab you.”

Kevin Jones, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court the second man took her ignition key and she was bundled out of the Ford Mondeo.

She then tried to grab the handbrake, but as she leant into the vehicle she fell and the car drove over her leg but she sustained just cuts and bruising.

The two men made their getaway from the scene but they were later forced to abandon the vehicle after crashing into a number of parked cars in Dibdale Road, Dudley.

Halford, of Rowan Rise, was quickly arrested by police officers not far from the scene together with his accomplice who is now on the run after being bailed.

He admitted robbery, drink driving and having no insurance and he was sent to a young offenders institution for a total of four years ten months.

He maintained to police officers he had not been driving the Mondeo when the woman was run over or when it crashed into the vehicles in Dudley.

Recorder Stephen Eyre QC told him the offences were so serious only a substantial time in custody was appropriate.

Simon Hanns, defending, told the court that at the time Halford had been in the grip of drink and drugs and his life had been “spiralling out of control”.

He said Halford, who was further banned from driving for a year, had not known the young woman, although the second man – whose idea it was to commit the offences – did know her.