A 24-year-old tenant took his landlady’s car without her permission and crashed it into a van.
Pereira Fernandes of Wignals Gate, Holbeach admitted aggravated vehicle taking and driving without insurance or a driving licence at Boston Magistrates Court this week.
The court heard he had taken his landlady’s Ford Fiesta at 9.30am on November 8 2019 without her permission and had then crashed into a van on the A17 at Washway Road in Spalding.
Witnesses had said he had been ‘weaving all over the road prior to ‘crashing into oncoming traffic’.
Anita Toale, mitigating, said the offence was ‘almost inexplicable’.
She said that at the time, he was ‘not in the right place’ having just broken up with his girlfriend of three years and had taken his landlady’s car ‘in a moment of madness’.
She told the magistrates that he had not fled the scene of the collision and had checked to make sure the other driver was all right and uninjured.
The magistrates ordered Fernandes to undergo 140 hours of unpaid work for the community and banned him from driving for a year.
He was also ordered to pay £500 compensation to the car owner and £175 in court costs and charges.