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Adam White: Heartfelt response to £150k donations after jail for chasing criminals from home - 'The rest goes to charity'

Television viewers have donated more than £150,000 to Adam White after his ordeal featured in a documentary that aired this week. (Channel 4)
Television viewers have donated more than £150,000 to Adam White after his ordeal featured in a documentary that aired this week. (Channel 4)

An electrician jailed for chasing two would-be burglars and running them off the road has said the remaining donations to his fundraising page will go to charity.

Adam White said the public response to his story - with donations exceeding £150,000 on Friday - has “put a warmth in our hearts” that he thought had been lost.

His case was featured on Channel 4 show 24 Hours in Police Custody on Monday, with a subsequent GoFundMe page set up by stranger Scott Tulloch to help reimburse his £51,000 legal fees, which were paid for via loans, credit cards and his life savings.

White told Yahoo News UK on Tuesday that the page had moved him to tears - and it generated a massive response in the following days. As of 12.30pm on Friday, the page had raised £150,102 - surpassing its £50,000 goal by more than £100,000.

In a heartfelt post at 6pm on Thursday evening, White and his partner, Lindsay, announced they would stop receiving the money from that point on, with any further donations going to charity “to honour the loss of our baby”. Lindsay White, who was six weeks pregnant at the time of the burglary in 2019, had an abortion when it became clear he was facing jail.

Read more: Adam White's full interview with Yahoo News UK from Tuesday

In their post, the couple said they were “overwhelmed”.

“We truly can’t believe how generous and thoughtful all our donors are. Every word of support has encouraged us to remain strong and has put a warmth in our hearts that we thought [was] lost three years ago.

“We feel so incredibly thankful for the money everyone has raised to help us get back our losses, and thanks to all of you, we have. At this stage I would like to take this opportunity to say to anyone who wishes to donate to the page, we will be passing on any future funds from now to charity, to honour the loss of our baby. We will update further information on the page shortly.”

Watch: Adam White and wife Lindsay thank 24 Hours in Police Custody viewers for support (from Wednesday)

They concluded: “Again, thank you all so much, it is time for us to move forward and start afresh with the life you all have given us back.”

Mr White, 34, was sentenced to 22 months in prison in February for causing serious injury by dangerous driving, after he drove his car in pursuit of two criminals on a stolen motorbike who targeted his home in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, in September 2019.

Featured on 24 Hours in Police Custody on Monday, the programme heard how the two would-be burglars, Taylor Benford and Ryan Paul, both 25, avoided prison sentences and are now suing White after they crashed during his pursuit and sustained a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and broken bones.

White had been at home with his wife, Lindsay, 34, and their two children, aged 10 and 12, when the two masked men, who have a string of criminal convictions, tried to break into their garage with a crowbar and bolt cutters. They targeted White after posing as buyers of a motorbike he was selling online.

White in police bodycam footage after he ran two burglars off the road in September 2019. (Channel 4)
White in police bodycam footage after he ran two burglars off the road in September 2019. (Channel 4)

White pursued the men in his Mercedes 4x4, and police received a 999 call minutes later reporting that the burglars had been thrown from a motorbike.

Benford and Paul later pleaded guilty at Luton Crown Court to attempted burglary and were given suspended sentences and 200 hours community service.

White was sentenced at the same court to 22 months in prison. He was jailed in February but released in September, and is now wearing an ankle tag.

Read more: Mother who abandoned baby son to die alone in his cot is jailed

Bedfordshire Police, which tweeted along with the show, said the case "divided opinion", but cautioned that victims should not take the law into their own hands.

Asked about the legal action being taken by the two burglars against him, White told this website: "I couldn't believe it. I don't see the justice in that.

"They're coming into someone's property to take stuff that's not theirs. I'm in the wrong for getting in my car and pursuing, but at the same time, driving at the speed they were driving at, I don't think I'm 100% responsible for causing that crash."