A man has lost his right to a cheap deal from a specialist young driver car insurance provider after stealing a TV news reporter's car and smashing it into a roundabout in the early hours of the morning.
24-year-old Peter Hewitt was staying at the Dorset home of ITN newsman Adrian Britton when he took his Ford Mondeo without permission. He was already banned from the road for a previous drink-driving conviction but was believed to have been desperate to meet up with a new girlfriend.
After careering into a roundabout, Hewitt fled the scene but was later discovered by the police and was found to still be in possession of the Mondeo's keys. DNA evidence taken from the airbag proved he had been driving the car and a breath test found him to be more than three times over the legal alcohol limit.
Appearing at Bournemouth Magistrates' Court, unemployed Hewitt pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking, driving with no motor insurance, driving while disqualified and driving with excess alcohol.
He was banned from the road for three years, ordered to undertake 120 hours of unpaid community work, told to pay court costs of £34 and given a four-month prison sentence suspended for a year.
Hearing about the case, Mike Page from Hoot Car Insurance Services, the expert providers of young driver car insurance, said, "I reckon this chap will have a bit of a job on his hands to find a cheap car insurance deal after what he's done."