Motorist (22) is convicted of dangerous driving for doing 'donuts' in a Lexus in a public car park in Ballymena
A 22-year-old man has been banned from driving for a year after being convicted of dangerous driving for doing 'donuts' in his Lexus car in a public car park in Ballymena.
Cameron Young, of Lettercreeve in Ballymena, contested the dangerous driving charge which related to Castle Street Car Park on the evening of Monday June 10 this year.
Footage was shown to the judge which showed that at around 10.55pm the defendant was in a blue Lexus IS200 car doing what a prosecutor said was 'donuts'.
The defendant told Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena, he, along with his girlfriend, had gone to the car park to meet a friend.
"I got encouraged to do donuts so I did a controlled skid around my friend," he said. He said he did "two donuts but in that controlled skid you are doing it four times".
The defendant said "before I started my skid I had a good look around to make sure there was nothing I could hit and I revved my car to 7000 RPM and released the clutch, while always looking where I was going".
Regarding if there was a potential loss of control he told the court: "I would say I was in control of the car the whole way through. I was only going about 25mph." He said: "There was nobody walking about. Everybody was sitting in their cars".
Regarding his driving ability, the defendant told the court: "I have been going to tracks and stuff since I was 16. My mum would have took me and got a 'recovery' down.
"I would have spent about four or five hours once a month at the track doing the same thing - Nutts Corner or I would have went down to Letterykenny in Donegal. You were getting about 90 minutes drive time out of it."
He confirmed to a defence solicitor it was "regulated and lawful". The defendant told the court he passed his driving test in June 2021.
A prosecutor asked the defendant if he accepted that when doing 'donuts' in a car park he was "relinquishing some sort of control of the vehicle" and he replied: "A slight bit but not much."
She said the footage showed the defendant "effectively pulling round another car and you are accepting you have lost some control of your vehicle" to which he replied: "I haven't lost much control, I have lost a wee bit, but I have kept it in control."
The prosecutor said the defendant's car was in close proximity to his friend's car and to another vehicle. The defendant said: "I was always looking out where the friend's car was so I knew where I was going."
The defence solicitor said although the defendant pleaded not guilty to the dangerous driving he was accepting it amounted to careless driving. The court was told the person who took the footage said the incident was "very loud".
District Judge Nigel Broderick said it would have been light at 10.50pm at that time of the year but it was a public car park.
He said the footage showed the defendant doing "what are described as donuts or drifting in a public car park". He said the question was if that amounted to dangerous driving.
The judge said: "The defendant is quite candid, perhaps naive due to his youth. He said he was encouraged to do donuts."
He said the prosecution had met the case to prove dangerous driving and the judge added: "Driving your car in a public car park doing donuts in my view does fall far below what would be regarded of a competent, careful, driver. It shouldn't be attempted, it is fraught with risk of injury not only to person but to other vehicles and on that basis I convict him."
The defendant had a "limited record". The defence solicitor said the defendant believed he had nine penalty points on his licence at the time of the car park incident.
The defendant was banned from driving for a year and was fined £400. He will have to re-sit a test to get back on the roads.