Man charged with kidnap after ambulance stolen with patient inside
The ambulance was stolen from Royal Stoke University Hospital
Last updated 27th Mar 2026
A man has been charged with kidnap after an ambulance was stolen from Royal Stoke University Hospital with a patient still inside.
Officers were called out to the hospital at around 8.15pm on Wednesday (25th March) following reports of a man driving off in an ambulance.
A paramedic, a patient and another person were in the back at the time.
Officers tracked the ambulance until it stopped at an Esso petrol station on the A34, at the junction of Liverpool Road and London Road in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
A police dog found the suspect in nearby marshland.
No one from inside the ambulance was injured, and a second ambulance was sent for the patient.
Marshall Leese, 31, of Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, has been charged with kidnap, theft of a motor vehicle, failing to provide a specimen for analysis, driving a motor vehicle dangerously, driving a motor vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence and using a motor vehicle without third party insurance.
Leese is due to appear at the North Staffordshire Justice Centre today (27th March).