A TEENAGER has admitted he wrote off and abandoned a car belonging to his mother’s partner by crashing it into a lamppost.

Ross Oram, 19, got behind the wheel of a Vauxhall Astra parked outside his mother’s house in Darlington after stating he could not sleep and was going to visit a friend.

Oram made the short journey from Hutton Avenue to Red Hall in the late night or early morning of August 24 and 25, 2017.

Appearing at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, Oram, of Middleton Court, Darlington, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking, driving without a licence and driving without insurance.

Alan Davison, prosecuting, said: “Between 10pm and 3am, Mr Oram has taken the keys to that vehicle which was parked up outside the house and he’s driven it from Haughton to Red Hall and he has crashed and left the car where it was.

“The airbags had gone off so he left the vehicle and he called his sister and went to her house on foot.

“The owner of the car is £800 out of pocket as the car was written off by the insurance company.

“He had driven to a friend’s house because he couldn’t sleep and it was raining and dark at the time.

“He had a provisional licence and no insurance. He had no permission to take the vehicle. He has nothing on his record.”

The lamppost, belonging to Darlington Borough Council, was damaged in the crash, however the authority made no claim for compensation in court.

Tom Morgan, mitigating, said: “These cases are generally all the same. Either someone has a reason that they drove or they really couldn’t way what possessed them to do and it and the defendant falls into the latter category.

“He’s a promising individual – he’s studying English and IT, two core subjects he needs to go on to a career in engineering and he wants to work on the oil rigs.

“He’s remorseful and sorry and he’s a man of previous good character.”

Oram was told by magistrates he had made a “foolish decision” to take the car and drive, however they took his previously clean criminal record into account.

The 19-year-old was given a driving ban for one year and ordered to pay £500 in compensation for writing off the Vauxhall Astra.