A tree surgeon who drove while he was disqualified, and without insurance or tax, has been sentenced to community service.

Brandon William Clague Lindsay, had previously denied the offences, but on Tuesday, January 21, changed his pleas to guilty.

Deputy High Bailiff Rachael Braidwood ordered the 24-year-old to do 200 hours’ community service in the next 12 months.

However, he was cleared of entering onto a closed road, careless driving, and failing to stop for police, after the prosecution offered no evidence in relation to those charges, which he had also denied.

The court heard that around the date of the incident, the Mountain Road was closed due to ice and snow.

The Met Office had issued a new yellow weather alert which urged residents to ‘be aware’ of bad weather which could cause disruption and delays.

The road was eventually shut for a number of days after snow covered much of the higher ground on the island/

On November 20 at 10pm, police were talking to the driver of a vehicle at Tholt Y Will, when Lindsay pulled up behind it in a Mitsubishi Shogun.

He was then said to have reversed and left the area.

Police then found the Shogun driven into a ditch.

Checks showed that Lindsay, who lives at Ashley Park in Onchan, was disqualified from driving in 2022 with an order to retake his test, which he had not done.

The vehicle’s tax had expired in June 2021 and he was unable to produce insurance.

It was said that, although the Mountain Road had been closed, Tholt Y Will had not.

Defence advocate Ian Kermode said that his client’s position was that he had witnessed police speaking to the driver in front, but that there had been no conversation between himself and the police.

However, he admitted that he did drive away.

Mr Kermode handed in letters from the defendant himself, as well as his mother and father.

The advocate said that Lindsay had said he had been ‘doing no more than playing in the snow’.

He referred to his mother’s letter, which said: ‘If there was an Olympic section for acting like an idiot, my son would surely bring home a gold medal.’

Mr Kermode went on to ask for credit to be given for the guilty pleas, said that his client had spent a night in the cells after his arrest, and asked for the driving ban to be kept to a minimum as it would affect Lindsay’s employment.

The Deputy High Bailiff sentenced him to 160 hours for driving while disqualified, 40 hours for having no insurance, and made no separate penalty for the tax offence.

Ms Braidwood told Lindsay: 'This wasn't an emergency. It wasn't a necessary journey.

'As you put it, it was "an adventure in the snow".

'You were egged on by friends and there was peer pressure, but you are a 24-year-old man, not a schoolboy.'

He must also pay £125 prosecution costs, which he will pay within one month.