A man wrote off his own grandmother’s £8,000 mobility car after he took it without her consent to get to a shop before it shut.
Police were alerted by a member of the public who found the crashed Vauxhall Corsa abandoned in Money Bridge Lane, West Pinchbeck, at 9.30am on Sunday, August 25.
At first, Ben Harvey’s family thought the car had been stolen off the driveway overnight and the car keys taken in a burglary through their own letter box.
Rebecca Ritson, prosecuting, said it didn’t appear to the police that a burglary through the letter box was possible and then Harvey’s mother phoned them to say her son had admitted taking and crashing the vehicle.
Harvey (30), of Spalding Road, Pinchbeck, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking, which involves damaging a vehicle taken without the owner’s consent, driving without insurance and driving without a licence.
For aggravated vehicle taking he was given a curfew, which means he will be electronically tagged and must remain at his home address between 7pm-7am every day for four months, and was banned from driving for 12 months.
He received no separate penalties for the other two offences when he appeared at Spalding Magistrates’ Court on Thursday although his licence was endorsed and he must pay £85 costs.
Miss Ritson said it “was with some reluctance” that Harvey’s grandmother made a complaint against him, but the car was a mobility leased vehicle and unless she had complained she would have been liable to pay the £8,000 value.
Following her complaint the sum was paid by insurers.
Solicitor Carrie Simson, mitigating, said: “He deeply regrets it and he is sorry for the upset that he’s caused both his grandmother and his mother.
“He suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome and that often means he often doesn’t think through the consequences of his actions.”