A Lossiemouth man who crashed his mother’s Land Rover while driving without having a licence was sentenced to 230 hours community service on Thursday.
22-year-old Shaun Flett took the £40,000 vehicle from the home he shares with his mother in the town without her permission and at a time when he had already been banned from the road because of a previous driving offence.
Elgin Sheriff Court learned that Flett took the vehicle at around 1.30am before arriving an hour later at his brother’s home after crashing it.
Fiscal Alison Whyte told the court: “His brother would see he was drunk and left him there for a while. It was a one-vehicle collision and there were no injuries.”
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood had considered a custodial sentence for Flett, saying: “I’m of the view that this is a case which could attract a custodial sentence – but I’m prepared to deal with it with a community payback order.”
As well as the community service Flett was disqualified from driving for 18 months.