A MOTORIST who took a high-powered car for a test drive wrote it off in a crash with a traffic island, a lamppost and four parked cars.

Michael Hammond, prosecuting, told Harrogate Magistrates' Court yesterday how Wesley Donnelly lost control of the Ford Escort RS Turbo in the town's King's Road, forcing at least one pedestrian to jump out of his way and narrowly missing a car carrying a family of four.

Mr Hammond said Donnelly, 25, left a pub in Skipton Road, turning into King's Road after a few hundred yards and accelerating hard.

Within seconds the car had reached a speed witnesses put at between 40mph and 50 mph in a 30mph zone.

The car mounted a traffic island and crushed bollards before spinning across the road into a lamppost and then four cars parked on a former garage forecourt.

Mr Hammond said Donnelly, of Jesmond Road, Harrogate, ran away, leaving his injured passenger Ivan Gray in the wreckage.

When police traced Donnelly, he told them he could remember little of the incident. He had woken up in a field in the Granby area of Harrogate the next day and then spent 24 hours in hospital for treatment to a head injury.

Donnelly pleaded guilty to careless driving, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report it. The prosecution dropped a dangerous driving allegation.

Stephen Smithson, in mitigation, said the Escort, which had been loaned to Donnelly while he considered buying it, had been written off at a cost to him of £1,500.

Donnelly was fined £500 plus £70 costs.

The court added nine penalty points to the three already on his licence, banning him from driving for six months.