Queensland police have released dramatic video of a 70-minute police pursuit of two men who stole a Blue Care van with an elderly patient with dementia inside last year on the Sunshine Coast.

Dean Robert Richards and Jarred Taylor Strafford attacked a Blue Care worker in June, kicking him in the chest as he tried to fight them off.

They then fled in the carer’s van with a 76-year-old man with dementia still inside.

Today, the Maroochydore Magistrates Court heard the man had little memory of the incident.

The court was told the pair led police on a lengthy chase from Maroochydore to Nambour, where the two men were pulled from the van by police and arrested.

The two men had each only been on parole for a couple of weeks when the offences occurred.

Richards, 24, faced 22 charges, including unlawful use of a motor vehicle, deprivation of liberty, fraud, and prison riot offences, dating back to his term in Maryborough Correction Facility.

The court heard Richards had been released on parole four weeks before the incident, which had formed part of a larger crime spree involving stolen credit cards, efforts to steal cars from homes, and a weapons offence after officers discovered a sawn-off shotgun left with a friend.

Strafford, 21, faced charges of assault, unlawful use of a motor vehicle, and deprivation of liberty over the van theft.

He had been released on parole two weeks before he and Richards stole the Blue Care van, and has since then been serving the remainder of his prison term while awaiting sentencing.

Both pleaded guilty to all charges.

Strafford will be eligible for parole again in two months, after being sentenced to 12 months in prison.

Richards was sentenced to a further two and a half years in prison, with parole eligible from May next year.

– ABC / Owen Jacques