Teen who crashed stolen car into three parked cars and telegraph pole handed five-month custodial sentence

A teenager who crashed a stolen car into three parked cars and a telegraph pole has been handed a five-month custodial sentence and banned from driving for two years.

Newry Magistrates Court, sitting in Lisburn, heard that police arrested 18-year-old Michael Mynes after his mother called to report that he had confessed to her he had “taken a car and crashed it”.

Mynes, listed as no fixed address in Bessbrook but who appeared in court via videolink from the Young Offenders Centre, pleaded guilty to a total of 14 offences on two bills of indictment.

The teen, who already has more than 120 convictions in the Youth Court, admitted burglary of Buttercrane Shopping Centre in Newry, going equipped for theft and possessing Diazepam on February 4 this year, along with 12 driving offences arising from incidents on February 14 including aggravated car theft causing damage, dangerous driving, failing to stop, remain or report, driving without a licence or insurance and driving while unfit.

A prosecuting lawyer said on February 4, security staff at the shopping centre reported they had stopped Mynes and another man after they stole two bottles of perfume worth £53.

Mynes made full admissions and was freed on police bail but the court heard that just over a week later, a man left his VW Golf with the engine running outside his girlfriend's house and came out to discover it had been stolen.

A short time later police received a report that it had crashed into three parked cars and a telegraph pole and was lying in its roof on the Mill Road in Bessbrook.