Please see a press release issued by West Midlands Police this morning, Tuesday 19 August 2014:
Man charged with assaulting paramedics and stealing ambulance
A Walsall man will appear in court next month accused of stealing an ambulance and assaulting medical staff in Bloxwich in May.
Simon Lewis was arrested after police received a report that a man was acting violently towards an ambulance crew who’d attended a call-out to a flat in Bloxwich High Street on 15 May.
The unemployed 37-year-old is alleged to have assaulted two ambulance staff before driving off in the emergency vehicle.
The ambulance was forced to stop near Green Lane Baptist Church by a police response vehicle.
Lewis, of High Street, was subsequently charged with aggravated vehicle taking, dangerous driving, common assault, assault by beating and using a motor vehicle without insurance.
He has been bailed to appear before Walsall and Aldridge Magistrates Court on 9 September.