A teenager who stole a funeral car from an undertaker and led police on a high speed chase before crashing has been jailed for six months.
Sammy Townsley drove through a city centre at more than 60mph in the Mercedes limousine which he stole from outside a funeral parlour.
A court was told yesterday that the unqualified joyrider was unable to control the powerful limo because he had only had a handful of driving lessons.
Townsley tried to outrun chasing police officers and eventually crashed into a barrier and telegraph pole, leaving his passenger unconscious at the roadside.
The 17-year-old - whose criminal record was described by Sheriff Michael Fletcher as "extraordinary" - was sentenced to a total of six months detention.
The learner driver was also disqualified for 18 months and ordered to sit the extended driving test. Townsley, of Binview Road, Buckie, admitted stealing the limousine and smashing it into the pole after losing control of the vehicle.
The car, which was stolen from James McEwan & Sons in Perth.
Townsley - who has been convicted of more than a dozen offences since turning 16 - admitted driving dangerously in the stretch funeral car on April 24.
Fiscal depute Lucy Keane told Perth Sheriff Court: "He was seen to swerve into the opposite carriageway several times. He was signalled to stop but he failed to do so. He negotiated several corners on the wrong side of the road before he lost control and collided with a crash barrier and telegraph pole."
Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said: "He doesn't really have a good explanation - if there could be such a thing - as to why the vehicle was taken."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article