Moray capture for dangerous underage driver seen in Inverness and Keith
A 17-year-old boy has been sentenced to detention in a secure unit after drunkenly driving at police officers during a 30-hour long cat and mouse chase.
The youth, who was 16 at the time of the incident, endangered the lives of police officers by driving a car towards them at speed - before driving dangerously for 55 miles from Inverness to Keith.
Sheriff Gary Aitken "performed a difficult balancing act" when opting to sentence the Aberdeen teenager to a maximum of 15 months in a secure unit. He also banned the youth from driving for four-and-a-half years.
He decided his priority had to lie with the protection of society rather than the need for rehabilitation and support for the youngster, who was aged 16 at the time of the series of offences.
He told the youth: "The course of driving and potential consequences for the police and the public are extreme to say the very least.
“The only thing that makes it remotely difficult for me is your age. If you were five years older it would have been a sentence of four or five years, which is towards the maximum I can impose.
"Supervision may make a difference for you. However the needs of justice are not solely yours.
“Society requires to be protected from those who behave in this fashion so I am forced to the view that nothing other than a custodial sentence is appropriate."
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The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will likely only serve a few months in a secure unit for persons under the age of 18 as the sentence was backdated to February 4 - the date of his remand.
As he reaches the age of 18 in early summer, it is also unlikely he will serve much, if any, time at the Polmont Young Offender's Institution to where he would be transferred on his birthday.
Sheriff Aitken also banned him from driving for four-and-a-half years and ordered the unlicensed driver to sit the extended test of competency before he receives his driving licence.
The teenager had previously admitted at Inverness Sheriff Court three charges of driving dangerously and two of assault to danger of life, committed on March 10 and 11 last year.
His lawyer Neil McRobert had hoped his client may receive a sentence in the community after spending the equivalent of a three-and-a-half-month custodial sentence on remand.
He told the court: "There is little that can be said to mitigate his conduct. It was his brother's car, the driving was indeed dangerous and at the age of 16, he had no right to be behind the wheel.
"He is remorseful and ashamed and this could have had more serious consequences not only for himself but more significantly for others."
Fiscal depute Emily Hood told the court that the police saw the boy drive at speed through a pedestrian archway in Lombard Street, in Inverness, at 12.20am on March 10. He refused to stop when signalled by three police constables on foot patrol.
Ms Hood said: "The accused accelerated and drove directly towards them all, two of them having to take evasive action by jumping to the left to avoid being struck. He stuck his middle finger up at them.
"He then veered his vehicle to the left towards one of the officers who had to suddenly move behind a set of metal bollards to avoid being struck."
The silver Subaru was then driven through Inverness, with CCTV picking it up in Academy Street. It was tracked down in Clachnaharry Road by a police vehicle but it sped away. Ms Hood said no pursuit of it was authorised.
The teenager was located at about 11pm that night in the Merkinch area after it struck another vehicle in Kessock Avenue.
The occupants of that car followed the teenager. But when it drove up the wrong way along Pumpgate Street, one of the witnesses jumped out to take a photograph of the car, only for the youth to drive towards her and she was pulled away by her partner, Ms Hood went on.
Their vehicle was struck head on, hit a parking sign, and mounted the pavement to drive around the damaged car.
The Subaru was spotted by an off-duty constable half-an-hour later at the Esso garage in the Longman, but, although one police car that had been dispatched parked in front to stop him driving away, he quickly reversed out of the forecourt and disappeared along the A96.
The court heard it was seen about 75 minutes later in the Moray area and then again at about 2.10am on March 11 in Keith, through which it drove at speed on the opposing carriageway to the danger of others.
Ms Hood told the sheriff that at 2.35am it was seen by two witnesses in the middle of an unclassified road at Whitehill, Keith, when the Subaru drove towards them at speed and struck the rear of their vehicle.
"The incident was reported to the police and at 6.40am, police received a call that the vehicle was abandoned in the middle of the road and causing an obstruction on Grampian Road, Elgin,” Ms Hood said.
“Police attended and observed the accused in the driver's seat apparently asleep. He was arrested."
