Drug-addicted van thief who killed Amazon driver in Leeds blames speed bumps for fatal smash

Mark Ross is on trial accused of murdering the vehicle owner Claudiu-Carol Kondor, who was trying to stop Ross from taking his silver Ford Transit.

Mr Kondor clung to the open passenger-side door with his feet scraping along the road at speeds up to 60mph.

The 42-year-old was ripped from the van and suffered catastrophic injuries when it ploughed at speed into the side of a parked Mini. Ross then drove off before parking up and unloading the parcels with associates, who planned to sell the items.

Ross, 32, admits manslaughter, but denies murder, claiming he did not notice Mr Kondor clinging to the door and screaming for him to stop.

Giving evidence on day four of his trial at Leeds Crown Court, unemployed Ross confessed he lived a life of crime, stealing to fund his crippling cannabis addiction.

He told the jury he would often smoke the drug from the moment he got up until he went to bed. He said he had run up a £4,000 debt with dealers and was struggling to even pay off the accumulating interest.

Ross, of Conference Road, Armley, said he had been on his way to buy drugs on the evening of August 20 last year when he noticed the van with the door open and the engine running. Mr Kondor had been delivering a parcel in the Alliance Road area of Armley at the time.

Seizing his opportunity, Ross jumped into the driver’s seat and took off, only for Mr Kondor to notice and grab onto the passenger-side door, open it and try to climb in.

Footage played to the court earlier in the trial showed Mr Knodor, dressed in a high-vis vest being dragged along the road, trying to climb into the van.

The vehicle sped up to 60mph - three times the speed limit of the built-up area - before swerving into the parked Mini on Heights Drive in Wortley, around 500 metres from where it was initially taken. Mr Kondor, who was from Sheffield, suffered fatal chest and head injuries in the collision.

Quizzed by his defence barrister, Simon Keeley KC, Ross admitted he was speeding and driving dangerously. He claimed that due to the speed, the parcels in the front seat had fallen onto the floor of the driver’s side footwell, so he attempted to pick them up, causing him to swerve.

He said the radio had been on at the time so did not hear the screams of Mr Kondor.

Ross then claimed he hit the speed bumps which caused the van to career into the path of the Mini, but he was able to turn the wheel at the last moment only to scrape along the side of the parked car.

He said: “I flew over the speed bumps. It’s a speed I should not have been hitting those speed bumps.”

He claimed he only discovered about Mr Kondor later on social media.

He told the jury that had he known the driver was clinging on, he would have “stopped and run off” because his adrenaline was “going through the roof”.

The trial, which is expected to conclude this week, continues.