A BURGLAR led police on a 115mph chase — and overtook an ambulance — in a van containing £30,000 worth of bikes he’d stolen from a Keswick shop.

The town’s E-Venture Bikes, Elliot Park, was broken into at around 10-20pm on October 5.

A witness heard an alarm going off and saw a van at the back of the premises.

The voices of several males were heard, along with the vehicle door closing, before it drove off. The registration number of the vehicle was taken and CCTV footage captured the van being driven away at high speed.

Mobile police patrols were set up and, just before midnight, the Ford Transit was spotted on the M6 in South Cumbria, being driven at high speed and carrying out undertakes.

A prosecutor at Carlisle Magistrates’ Court told how it was estimated to be travelling around 115mph southbound on the motorway before leaving at Junction 33 in Lancashire. “It stays above the speed limit the entire time,” George Shelley, prosecuting, had said. “Dangerous driving, through rural villages.”

It reached around 80mph and, he said, there was “even a dangerous overtake of an ambulance” before it stopped.

Balaclavas, a crow bar, angle grinder and gloves were recovered along with several bikes valued at £30,198 from the vehicle.

There had, added Mr Shelley, been “deliberate disregard for the safety of others” during the high speed pursuit.

In the aftermath two men, driver Harry Curran, 34, and 41-year-old accomplice James Easterbrook were charged.

And at Carlisle Crown Court today (thurs), Curran — a one-time personal trainer — admitted burglary of E-Venture Bikes and also dangerous driving of the Ford Transit, on the M6 between junctions 37 and 33, and the A6.

London-based duo Curran, of Wicker Street, Tower Hamlets, and Easterbrook, of Cable Street, appeared at the crown court remotely via video links from custody.

Barrister Kim Whittlestone, for Curran, said he was “desperate” to be sentenced as soon as possible.

“He does not seek to waste the court’s time,” she said. “He is realistic in light of his antecedents. He knows it is going to be custody, it is just a matter of length.”

Easterbrook, however, was not represented by a barrister and did not enter a plea to the one burglary charge he faces.

As a result, the case was adjourned to December 1. Easterbrook and Curran will remain in custody until then.