Armed boy tipped over car with fork-lift truck Published duration 26 July 2017

image copyright INS image caption The boy admitted aggravated vehicle taking and possessing a firearm

A 15-year-old boy has admitted tipping over a car with a fork-lift truck while armed with an air rifle.

A police helicopter was scrambled when reports emerged of a truck "driving erratically" around Hazel Gardens in Sonning Common in September last year.

The boy told Oxford Magistrates' Court court: "It probably wasn't the best thing to have done."

He admitted aggravated vehicle taking, possessing an unloaded firearm, and careless driving.

media caption A member of the public filmed the boy on the forklift

'Lethal machine'

The magistrates heard the teenager stole the vehicle from Oliver Agriculture in Cane End, near Reading, and drove it two-and-a-half miles to Sonning Common.

There he wrote off a Fiat Punto by tipping it on to its side, a prosecutor said.

Chairman of the magistrates Colin Mcguire described the fork-lift truck as "a lethal machine" and asked the Youth Justice Service to carry out a report.

The teenager from Henley-on-Thames, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will be sentenced on 16 August.

image copyright Vagner Vidal/INS News Agency Ltd image caption The Fiat Punto was written off