Fleeing Leeds '˜thief' earning '˜easy Â£500' died after leaping from lorry on M1

The M1 was closed for several hours after the fatal collision on December 2, 2015.

A SUSPECTED thief from Leeds died after he attempted to run across three lanes of the M1 to try to avoid police capture and was struck by several vehicles, an inquest heard.

Father of two Liam Mealing, 24, from Beeston, Leeds, was killed after he leapt out of a lorry that had stopped on the motorway in Northamptonshire after it was followed by two police vehicles in the early hours of December 2 last year.

An inquest in the Court Room at County Hall heard officers were attempting to stop the Iveco lorry as it had triggered an Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) camera as a suspected stolen vehicle.

Giving evidence, PC Lee Walker, who was a passenger in a police car being driven by his colleague PC Paula Foster, said the officers started to follow the lorry shortly after junction 15a northbound at about 3am.

PC Walker said an officer in a dog unit van was also following the lorry, which contained Mr Mealing and another man.

The inquest heard the lorry was travelling at abut 50mph and the officers decided to try to pull the vehicle over at the junction 16 exit.

PC Walker said the officers put on the siren and flashing lights at the 300m exit sign and indicated to the lorry to move off the carriageway.

However, the lorry did not take the exit and continued along the motorway.

The police officers were given authorisation to continue following the lorry and PC Walker said the vehicle was “not driven erratically” and did not exceed 55mph.

However, the lorry then braked sharply and came to a standstill in the outer lane nearest the central reservation.

PC Walker said two men then jumped out of the driver’s side of the vehicle, climbed over the concrete barrier and ran into the southbound carriageway.