A WARRANT has been issued for the arrest of a teenager involved in a fatal road crash.

District Judge Roger Elsey yesterday issued a warrant for the arrest of Michael Ridley after the 18-year-old failed to answer his bail to face motoring offences.

Ridley, of Delaville Road, Billingham, Teesside, appear-ed before magistrates in July charged with driving while disqualified and having no insurance. He pleaded guilty.

Despite being given a 12-month disqualification from driving by magistrates in January last year, for driving with excess alcohol, the teenager was giving girlfriend Ashleigh Reed a ride on his Yamaha motorbike when it was in a collision on Stockton Ring Road last November.

Pillion passenger Ashleigh was killed in the crash. The car driver involved in the fatal accident, Edward Simms, of Darlington Lane, Norton, near Stockton, was fined £1,700, ordered to pay £50 costs and disqualified from driving for two years after pleading guilty to careless driving, when he appeared before Teesside Magistrates in July.

Simms had driven out of Glebe Road, at its junction with the Stockton Ring Road, when the collision took place.

The case against Ridley had been adjourned until yesterday for pre-sentence reports.

An inquest said Ashleigh's death was accidental.