A TEENAGE drink driver who left his car in the middle of the road after an accident has been banned from driving.

Shaun Samuel Darbyshire-Robert, 19, pleaded guilty to a charge of failing to provide a specimen for analysis, following the incident on November 21.

Wrexham Magistrates Court heard how Darbyshire-Robert’s vehicle had collided with a taxi outside Speedie Cars on Burton Street in Wrexham town centre.

A woman working at Speedie Cars contacted police to tell them a man had provided his details before leaving the scene and abandoning his vehicle in the middle of the road.

When officers attended Darbyshire-Robert’s home address he answered the door holding his car keys and gave a positive reading of 71 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

On arrival at the police station, the teenager had been unable to provide a specimen.

He told officers that he had picked up some friends and driven into Wrexham town centre where he had parked his car and not intended to drive it again that night.

The group had been drinking in Lloyds Bar and New York New York and his friends had asked for a lift home. He had felt pressured and so gave in.

Following the collision he had panicked and gone home while some of his friends tried unsuccessfully to move the vehicle from the road.

Justine McVitie, defending, said Darbyshire-Robert, of Burton Drive, Wrexham, was a plumbing apprentice with a local firm and had no previous convictions.

She said he was “genuinely remorseful” and had made a “massive error of judgment” after feeling pressure from his friends.

She added that he had genuinely tried to provide a sample and not deliberately refused.

Chairman of the bench Justine Barlow disqualified Darbyshire-Robert from driving for 12 months and ordered him to pay a fine of £120, £85 costs and a victim surcharge of £30.