Accident lost driver his job after 18 years – NW Evening Mail
Published at 13:13, Wednesday, 23 November 2011
A MAN wrote off his employer’s van after taking it from a colleague without permission, a court heard.
Wesley Marc Ball appeared at Furness Magistrates’ Court yesterday, and pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and vehicle damage under £5,000.
The 34-year-old, of Richmond Terrace, Barrow, also admitted using a motor vehicle without insurance and driving without a licence.
Mrs Lisa Hine, prosecuting, told the court Ball had taken the van, belonging to his, then, employers, Chatsworth Signs in Barrow, on the afternoon of August 12.
A colleague had taken the van home that afternoon, the court heard.
At 5.30pm, Ball turned up at the man’s house and stayed for 20 minutes, before leaving.
At 8pm, his colleague went to go out, and found that the keys for the van had gone.
He called Ball and told him to bring the van back because he was not allowed to drive it.
Ball told him he’d been doing a job in Millom and would return shortly.
At 12.30am, Ball called his colleague to say he’d crashed the van on his way back to Barrow.
Mrs Hine said: “He had worked until the light went just after 11pm and then drove back. While driving back, he had been approaching Duddon Bridge down the big hill when he saw a car coming up towards him on his side of the road.
“He moved over to avoid it, he clipped the verge and the van turned over and slipped down the road.”
Ball only had a provisional licence and, because he was driving the vehicle without the owner’s consent, he was not insured.
The van, which was valued at £1,200, was written off.
Mr Michael Graham, defending, told the court Ball’s girlfriend had just broken up with him before the incident, leaving him with no place to live and meaning he had to move back in with his parents.
He had jumped at the chance to take extra work in Millom to make some money to pay off debts.
Mr Graham said Ball was dismissed from Chatsworth Signs, where he had worked for 18 years, following the incident.
District Judge Gerald Chalk gave Ball a 12-month community order with a 12-week curfew between 8pm and 6am.
Ball was also disqualified from driving for a year and ordered to pay £85 court costs.
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk