A man who took his mum’s car without her consent and drove it with no valid licence or insurance was caught on CCTV committing the crime.
Jay Milburn’s mum parked her white Seat Leon in the drive of her Milnfua, Alness, home and went to bed, but when she got up in the morning her car had moved and was dirty.
The mum asked Milburn about it and he denied taking the car, however, when she checked CCTV she saw others in the car – and her son at the wheel.
Milburn, 20, appeared at Tain Sheriff Court to admit taking the vehicle without consent and driving without a valid licence or insurance.
Fiscal depute Grant McLennan told the court that on May 11 of this year, Milburn’s mother parked her car on the driveway and went to bed.
Mum’s car had moved
At 8.30am the next day she went outside and “noted the vehicle to be in a different position”.
“The vehicle was dirty and the previous evening had been clean,” Mr McLennan told Sheriff Neil Wilson.
The court heard that the mum then checked a household CCTV system which “captured the accused and other individuals in the vehicle – the accused in the driver’s seat”.
Police traced Milburn, who stated that he was the driver.
He held only a provisional licence and was not insured to drive the vehicle.
‘A daft laddie’
Defence solicitor Rory Gowans told the court: “The witness is Mr Milburn’s mother. She went to bed, the car was there, he seems to have succumbed to certain suggestions made by others and taken the car out.
“He would like to make this his first and only court appearance.
“He has, to coin a phrase, been a daft laddie.”
Sheriff Wilson banned Milburn, of Milnafua, Alness, from the roads for a year and fined him £640.