A teenager who caused £2.5m worth of damage on a building site when he smashed a dumper truck into several properties has been locked up.
The youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, went on to steal another dumper truck a week after causing substantial damage to the new-build site in Darlington.
Newton Aycliffe Youth Court heard how the 16-year-old took the second dumper on a rampage after breaking into the vehicle near Middleton St George.
Paul Doney, prosecuting, said the teenager seriously damaged seven houses on the building site off Neasham Road when he broke into the JCB just before 9pm on April 27.
He said the damage to the properties had caused a ‘butterfly effect’ with the project being delayed by several months and people being prevented from moving into their new homes.
The court heard how on May 2 the teenager forced his way into another dumper truck near Middleton St George before driving it across fields and onto a road.
Mr Doney said the teenager forced people to take evasive action when he drove along a footpath and along the road.
The teenager had pleaded guilty to criminal damage, driving without a licence, no insurance, and two counts of aggravated vehicle taking.
John Clish, mitigating, said his client had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and accepted that his actions had caused ‘significant and substantial damage’.
He said: “One hopes this may just be a phase in his life which he can turn around with help, if the court is prepared to take the chance on him.
“He accepts that what he did was wrong. He said he knows he shouldn’t have done what he did and in his own words he said he was an idiot.
“He seems to do things which he thinks will give him favour in his community with his peers.
“There has been a degree of manipulation and seems like he was doing someone else’s dirty work.”
The teenager addressed the judge directly telling him that he accepted that he had behaved stupidly.
“I was just being stupid and I’m really sorry from the bottom of my heart,” he said.
“I don’t want to go to jail at 16, I have my whole life ahead of me.”
District Judge Stephen Hood told the teenager that his offending was so serious that only a custodial sentence was available to him.
He said: “In both of these cases you took a large vehicle, for which you had no previous experience of how to handle it and driven it about.
“You used this truck to cause damage to these houses; you tell me that you knew these houses were empty but that was only an assumption.
“If there was anybody inside, they could have suffered significant injuries or worse.”
The teenager was sentenced to a six-month detention and training order.
The judge added: “I have come to the conclusion that the risk of future harm is so high that I cannot step back from a custodial sentence in this case.
“The risk is simply too high in the circumstances.”
See more court stories from The Northern Echo by clicking here
- Teen "showed off" with picture of bloodied knife used to stab Bishop Auckland man
-
Two appear in court over incident that left Darlington baby fighting for its life
-
Man in court charged with attempted murder after late-night house blaze
Unlock unlimited local news subscribe today and save on an annual subscription. Enjoy access to our ad-free mobile and tablet app, as well as the digital edition of the paper. Don’t miss out – subscribe now! Click here for details.
He was banned from driving for 27 months and ordered to pay £500 in compensation through his mother.
Last month, Darlington Borough Council said structural engineers were due to assess whether any of the seven new-builds on its Hurworth Moor estate will need to be demolished.
The whole development, described as the council’s biggest new-build project in decades, will see construction of 150 homes with a rent-to-buy option offering a first step to affordable home ownership for residents.
The site will have a total of 64 two-bedroom apartments, 24 two-bedroom houses, 43 three-bedroom houses and 19 four-bedroom houses.
Share