A teenager drove down the wrong side of the road and through red lights during a high-speed police chase in Aberdeen.
Lee Derrett panicked after spotting the police behind him – knowing they had tried to pull him over for an earlier dangerous driving offence.
Desperate to get away, the 18-year-old squeezed between two lanes of queuing traffic on Wellington Road, hitting wing mirrors as he went.
He then led officers on a chase along Greenwell Road, Hillview Road and Greenbank Road, driving through a red light, before heading back onto Wellington Road.
Derrett carried on down the wrong side of the busy road, forcing other cars to swerve – before he eventually hit another vehicle on South College Street.
Yesterday, Derrett appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court to be sentenced after previously admitting he had committed a string of driving offences on February 8 this year.
He also admitted driving at excessive speeds and failing to stop on Great Northern Road in an earlier incident on December 2 last year.
During the incident, he ended up in a pedestrian area and forced a passer-by to jump out the way.
On both occasions, Derrett was driving without insurance.
Sheriff Raymond McMenamim told the teen that he deserved to be locked up for his dangerous stunts.
He said: “I have no idea what you were thinking driving like this.
“I should give you a custodial sentence for this.”
Defence agent Iain Hingston said his client had changed his ways since the offences, and grown up.
He said: “There is no mitigation that can be offered for driving like this.
“At the age of 18 he is not a child but he has significantly matured since this happened.
“I put this down to the fact he is now in a relationship with a woman who is far more sensible than him, and she appears to have put the foot down.
“He owned both the cars, he had bought one with the intention of selling it on for profit and the temptation just became too much.”
Sheriff McMenamim banned Derrett, of Claremont Street, Aberdeen, from driving for two years and ordered him to sit the extended test before getting back behind the wheel.
He also put him on an 18-month supervision order, and to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
The sheriff said: “Because you have shown remorse in the report I am just persuaded not to send you to custody.
“It was a close thing.”
