A teenager has admitted jumping into a dumper truck and crashing around a construction site – with a friend in the scoop.
Gregor Christie and his friend got into the site of the new £55million Inverurie Academy Community Campus last summer.
Christie climbed aboard the tipper truck while his friend hopped into the scooper bucket and sat with his legs dangling out, Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard yesterday.
Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson said the 19-year-old had driven around the site in a “reckless manner” on August 18 last year.
She said: “At 2.30am the accused attended the locus with an unidentified male.
“The accused entered the driver seat of a dumper truck and the unidentified male sat in the bucket with his legs hanging out.
“The accused then drove the vehicle in a reckless manner around the construction site.”
The drive lasted for several minutes, with Christie smashing into building materials and narrowly avoiding a building.
At one stage, his “passenger” in the bucket, which usually would hold materials such as bricks or coal, almost had his dangling legs trapped between a wall and the vehicle.
Alarms were triggered and the pair left, but the incident was captured on CCTV and Christie was later traced.
Christie, who was not present at court, pleaded guilty to culpably and recklessly driving the vehicle to the danger of his passenger.
He also admitted breaching an antisocial behaviour order (Asbo) that banned him from entering certain streets and areas of Inverurie at night.
Defence agent Michael Horseman said his client had “kept out of trouble for a while” until the incident.
Sheriff Graham Buchanan fined Christie, of Taylor Place, Inverurie, £400 and told him he had “no place” to be at the construction site.
The new community campus, on Jackson Street, will incorporate Inverurie Academy, St Andrew’s School and sports and leisure facilities for residents of the town.
Construction work was able to re-start on site earlier this month after lockdown restrictions eased.