Birthday girl, 17, stole bus

A teenage girl was counting the cost today of stealing a London bus in a drunken birthday prank and going on an early-morning wrecking spree.

The girl, who had never even driven a car before, was on her way home from her 17th birthday party where she had been drinking vodka and lager when she spotted the parked bus, empty and with its driver's door unlocked.

The "totally shocked" driver, who had left his bus for a few moments to check on his own car parked nearby, looked on in horror as she revved up the engine.

He jumped on to the singledecker and shouted at her to stop. But she ignored him, driving off for a short distance before ploughing into two cars and writing them both off.

The teenager, who was more than twice over the drink-drive limit, was arrested when she returned to the scene of the crash and was overheard bragging to neighbours about how she had been driving a bus.

The girl, from the Gipsy Hill area of south London, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted taking a vehicle without the owner's consent, drink driving, failing to stop after an accident, driving without insurance and driving without a licence, when she appeared before Lambeth youth court.

She was sentenced to a six month referral order, disqualified from driving for 18 months and her driving licence, even though she does not yet have one, was endorsed.

Sentencing the girl, who appeared in court with her mother, district judge Christopher Pratt told her: "This may have been a prank, but I don't see the funny side of it and neither do the people whose cars were damaged."

Timothy Spooner, in mitigation, said the girl was of previous good character and the incident was "a drunken prank gone wrong".

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