Car crashed through hedge into a field

Alana Armstrong, Tartaraghan Road, Portadown, was fined £100 last Thursday at Banbridge Magistrates Court for driving without due care and attention on September 30, 2016.

She was also given four points and ordered to pay a £15 offender’s levy.

The court heard that at 7am police received a report of a car which had gone through a hedgerow into a field and ended up in a ditch on the Upper Quilly Road, Banbridge.

They contacted the last registered owner who said he had sold the car to the defendant. Some of her personal effects were found in the vehicle. There was some substantial damage to the hedgerow and the car.

When police interviewed Armstrong she confirmed she had purchased the vehicle and was driving at the time. She said she was unfamiliar with the road.

A solicitor representing the defendant said the accident happened at one in the morning when she was going to pick up some friends in Banbridge.

He added that she had only purchased the car and simply wasn’t used to it.

The solicitor said Armstrong walked to a friend’s house and phoned her husband and asked him to pick her up.

He explained that his client no longer had the car and was no longer confident of driving.

District Judge, Mr Paul Copeland, said when he heard the details of a car going through a hedge late at night he was suspicious about what was going on.

But he was prepared to give the defendant the benefit of the doubt that she had been truthful.

“You need to be more careful,” the judge told her.