A HOMELESS teenager who ran away from police after abandoning his car because he was uninsured and had no driver’s licence has been given a conditional discharge for 12 months.

John Liam Jardine told magistrates in Newton Aycliffe that he had been living in his Ford Mondeo at the time police saw him driving at speed with three friends in the car near Middrige.

Prosecutor Phil Morley said officers noticed the car at about noon on May 2 near the junction between Old Eldon and Moor Lane because the driver’s window was smashed.

Officers followed the car for a while before Jardine, 18, abandoned it in a field and tried to escape on foot.

Jardine, who gave an address on Proudfoot Drive in Bishop Auckland, told the court he was effectively homeless, penniless and had nowhere to sleep since his car was taken away by police.

He said at the time police saw him he had only driven a short distance and he apologised to the court.

Jardine said: “It was stupid what I have done.”

Magistrates said they would have fined Jardine but for his lack of means.

As well as the conditional discharge they also put six penalty points on his provisional driving licence and ordered him to pay a £15 victim surcharge.