A POLICE patrol was shocked to find a 15-year-old behind the wheel of a car they stopped in Castlederg.

A POLICE patrol was shocked to find a 15-year-old behind the wheel of a car they stopped in Castlederg.

It was 2am when a PSNI patrol spotted a Zafira car leave the Diamond and head off towards Ferguson Crescent. When it drove over a roundabout they pulled it in only to discover that the motorist was a 15-year-old schoolboy.


There were five people in the rear and when a check was carried out, officers found that the child had already been banned from driving by Wigan magistrates court in April.

Solicitor Oliver Roche said all those in the car were related to the driver and that they had all been at a family Christening.

The 15-year-old was the most sober among them and was therefore the designated driver.

District Judge Nigel Broderick described the adults’ attitude as “very irresponsible” and said those who let him drive were more to blame than the teenager himself.

In total the child was banned from driving for a year and given a conditional discharge.

“There is no point in imposing a financial penalty on a schoolboy,” the judge added.