A Scottish Premiership player was shown the red card by a sheriff for taking his mum’s car without permission and then driving the wrong way down a one-way street.
Owura Edwards, a winger on loan from Bristol City to Ross County, was banned from the road for six months and fined a total of £740 after admitting four road traffic offences at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank was told that the 22-year-old was spotted in a Ford Fiesta by a police patrol on Station Road, Dingwall, on Hogmanay last year.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke said Edwards was driving towards them in contravention of the one-way sign so pulled him over.
‘His club have taken a dim view of this’
She added: “Traffic was light at 11.40pm on Hogmanay but there was a large number of pedestrians around as they left local pubs to celebrate the New Year.”
Ms Poke said that a check revealed that Edwards did not have a valid driving licence, had no insurance and subsequent contact with his mother disclosed that he did not have her permission to drive the vehicle.
Defence solicitor Rory Gowans told the court: “His mother had come up from Bristol to spend Christmas with him and took the car up so he could use it on passing his driving test, which he had booked.
“He made a foolish decision to take the car into the town centre.
“His club have taken a dim view of this and they have taken internal action.
“He is a young man with a lot of promise and he made a stupid mistake.”