A MAN was found “pretty legless” in his dad’s minibus which had been taken without the owner’s permission, a court heard.
Burnley Crown Court was told how Damien Geddes was a passenger in the vehicle which was found on the A59 by police. The minibus had gearbox trouble, had to be scrapped and the defendant’s dad, a father of six, could no longer take his family out for the day.
The hearing was told at the time Geddes was subject to a sentence of 52 weeks, suspended for 18 months, with alcohol treatment, imposed about six months before. He was said to have considerable personal problems and had been on medication for three and a half years.
The defendant (21), of Norfolk Street, Colne, admitted being carried in a vehicle taken without consent, in breach of the suspended term. He was given nine months supervision and Judge Simon Newell extended the operational period of the suspended sentence, so it finishes in September.
The judge told Geddes: “I could have sent you to prison for a year. If anything happens again, you are in real trouble.”