A THUG who dragged a woman along the street after stealing her car, has been jailed for 30 months.

Heroin addict Jason Shaw, 36, of Lincoln Road, Basildon, left his victim with deep tissue damage and frightened to go out after the carjacking, on January 30, 2014.

Yesterday Shaw was jailed for 30 months, after admitting theft of the car and maliciously wounding its owner.

Basildon Crown Court heard Shaw was in the dock just 14 days after being released from jail for another offence.

Judge Ian Graham said: “After crashing into the lamp-post with her on the bonnet, you showed no mercy. You did not even stop to see if she was all right, to see if she was injured, or if she was dead.

“She still suffers physical and mental symptoms. She fears going out because of what you did.”

Warwick Tatford, prosecuting, told the court the woman, who the Echo has agreed not to name, was going to collect her children from school when Shaw approached.

She was reversing her Honda CRV off the drive of her Basildon home when she saw Shaw pointing at the wheel.

He shouted to her that there was something wrong with the car and the woman asked what he was talking about.

Shaw replied there was something hanging from the driver’s side wheel. At first the woman ignored him, but then got out to check. That was when Shaw jumped into the vehicle and started to drive off.

The woman tried to grab the keys, then flung herself on to the bonnet to stop Shaw driving away.

The court heard Shaw shouted at her to get off, then swerved to the wrong side of the road and into a lamp-post. The woman fell to the ground and Shaw sped off.

She was taken to Basildon Hospital where doctors found she had suffered deep tissue bruising to her arms, legs and chest.

The car was recovered a short time later and Shaw was arrested.

At first, he refused to comment on the incident, but police found his DNA on one of the car’s door handles.

When questioned about this, he said he had viewed the car with a view to buying it, after it was offered to him by another criminal.

Shaw has a string of previous convictions for stealing cars, dating back to 1997 and had been to jail several times.

In mitigation, his lawyer, Christopher Saad, told the court Shaw developed a heroin addiction in 2000, after his partner gave birth to a stillborn baby.