[A] MAN who crashed a vehicle which he took without the owner’s consent has been sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court.
A judge heard how Darren Martin Brown got himself in trouble after attending an open mic night at Ennerdale brewery on February 23. Seeing a female was “intoxicated”, 38-year-old Brown decided to drive her a short distance home.
However, he did so by getting behind the wheel of another woman’s Ford Kuga without her permission.
On the return journey, Brown collided with another vehicle, causing damage.
He admitted charges of taking a vehicle without consent and having no insurance – crimes which put him in breach of a previously-imposed suspended prison sentence.
But after hearing mitigation, Recorder Kevin Grice concluded it would be “unjust” to activate that jail term.
Recorder Grice imposed a 12-month community order comprising unpaid work and rehabilitation which focuses on Brown’s “thinking skills”. Brown, of Murton Park, Arlecdon, also received a year’s driving ban.