A thief has been jailed for stealing the truck of a 53-year-old who died giving chase to him.

The victim suffered a suspected heart attack while pursuing Westley Alan Scott in another car after the theft in Mitcham on Monday morning.

The victim called his son and said he was experiencing chest pains, then crashed into a roundabout at the junction of Commonside West and Croydon Road at about 11.45am.

Scott was caught hours later and jailed on Tuesday for five and a half months.

Police officers and ambulance crews were called to the scene and made “extensive efforts” to resuscitate the man, an ambulance service spokesman said, but he was pronounced dead at St George’s Hospital in Tooting at 1.15pm.

Police said the truck, a white Nissan Cabstar, was stolen from its owner’s home in Links Road, Mitcham on Monday morning.

The suspected heart attack victim, a Polish man who has not been named by police, gave chase in a blue Volvo.

A police source said the victim had called his son as he set off after the truck, and asked him to phone the emergency services on his behalf because he was worried they would not understand his limited English.

The truck was stopped on the M25, near Swanley in Kent, at 12.40pm by Surrey police.

Scott, of Grove Road, Mitcham, was arrested and later pleaded guilty to taking and driving away a vehicle, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.

The unemployed 30-year-old was sentenced to 22 weeks imprisonment at Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday morning.

Merton police said no criminal investigation would be launched into the Polish man’s death, but refused to release his name.

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