‘Joyrider’ steals from elderly woman

Friday 16 August 2019

A man is facing five years behind bars after ‘joyriding’ two cars which he stole from an 88-year-old woman, on separate occasions.

Ian Tostevin, 32, was familiar with the pensioner and had lived with her as a tenant in her house around two years ago.

The first of the incidents is thought to have happened on 2 April this year. The defendant, who said he had been drinking, went to the victim’s drive, knowing she usually left her car keys inside the vehicle overnight.

Tostevin successfully started her Daihatsu and drove it around the island, despite never having held a driving licence in his life.

Although CCTV footage showed that, later on, the defendant was with another person, Tostevin claimed he could not remember who it was due to the amount of alcohol he had drunk.

Pictured: Tostevin knew the woman usually left her keys in the car ignition overnight.

He finally crashed the vehicle into a bush whilst going what he said was around 60mph along Victoria Avenue, St Sampsons. 

On realising the Daihatsu would no longer start, Tostevin decided to dispose of the evidence by sticking a piece of cloth in the petrol tank and setting it alight. However, his arson attempt was unsuccessful and Guernsey Police found the vehicle the following morning.

Around two weeks later, Tostevin handed himself in to the police, admitting the crimes he had committed.

“I can’t stop living like a rockstar,” he said in his interview. “I can’t live like this anymore and that’s why I’m here. I want to put this to bed now.”

Tostevin was on police bail when he committed the second incident, which targeted the same woman.

On 28 May he went back to that same driveway with the intention of stealing the victim’s other car - a Ford - but found that it was locked. He therefore decided to break into the house through a window on the ground floor and went up the stairs to speak with the elderly woman.

Pictured: Tostevin will now spend five years in Les Nicolles prison.

“I was so shocked to see him,” she said in her statement following the incident. “He scared me and I do not scare easily.”

Despite having been told Tostevin was the one who stole her car, the woman did not seem to make the connection and had a conversation with him about the first incident. At that point the defendant told the victim she was “like a mother” to him and said he wanted to make sure no one would steal from her again. He consistently asked where the keys to her Ford were and, in an attempt to get him out of her house, the woman eventually showed him.

Tostevin managed to slip the keys to the car into his pocket before faking an emergency phone call from the hospital and leaving. He told the victim he would let himself out of the house and took off in her car.

The woman felt so shaken-up after Tostevin’s visit that she contacted her daughter and asked if she could stay at her house for the night. It wasn’t until she went downstairs to drive to her daughter’s that she realised the car was missing.

Pictured: Guernsey Police arrested Tostevin at a local bar.

Guernsey Police found the unoccupied car later that evening on the Crown Pier. Officers went to look for Tostevin who was found in Amigos bar and, despite lying about his name and address, he was arrested.

The defendant started to become aggressive on his way to the police van and continued to insult officers throughout the journey and at the police headquarters.

He refused a breath test multiple times and talked or sang loudly over any warnings he was given.

In his interview the following day, Tostevin said he had a very excessive drinking problem and believed prison would be good for him.

“I’ll keep committing crimes until you lock me up,” he said. “I’m not looking at it as prison. I’m looking at it as rehab.”

On appearing in court, Tostevin was sentenced to 5 years in prison and a 10 year disqualification from driving.

Pictured top: Ian Tostevin.