A Ramsey man has been fined £650 after driving twice without displaying ’R’ plates and crashing his car when a puppy jumped on him.

Jake Stephen Ford, of Lezayre Road, pleaded guilty to the offences as well as driving without due care or attention.

Prosecutor James Robinson told the court how, on April 21 at 12.34pm, police stopped Ford while he was driving an Audi A3 in Baldrine.

Checks confirmed that 27-year-old Ford was a newly passed driver but he was not displaying ’R’ plates.

He apologised to police and said that he was going to buy the plates straight away.

He was told that this would be checked again, however, on April 28, the same police officers saw Ford driving the Audi A3 again, still without ’R’ plates.

They called at Ford’s home later to inform him he was being reported.

In a separate matter, on June 29, Ford was driving at Bircham Avenue Close in Ramsey when he drove across the junction and collided with another vehicle.

When quizzed by police Ford said that he had been distracted by a friend’s labrador puppy jumping on him.

Defence advocate Jim Travers asked for credit to be given to his client for his early guilty pleas and handed in a letter from Ford.

Mr Travers said: ’As you have heard, with the due care case, the incident related to a distraction, due to a puppy loose in the van at the time.

’He was asked to look after it at short notice. He accepts he had not fully considered the position he found himself in and had not been able to make full provisions to carry the puppy. He co-operated fully at the scene, apologised to the other driver and made full admissions.

’Regarding the ’R’ plate he was essentially given a warning at first. He went away and bought the ’R’ plates but regrettably he hadn’t managed to transfer the plates by the time he was seen again. On April 21 he had just had the vehicle insured as another car had broken down, so he had only recently put it on the road and had not property addressed the ’R’ plates.’

The court heard that Ford currently had two penalty points on his driving licence.

Mr Travers continued: ’I would submit the court may be able to deal with this by way of a financial penalty and points.’

Deputy High Bailiff Jayne Hughes asked when Ford’s ’R’ plate period was due to end and was told it was April 2018.

Ford was fined £100 for the first ’R’ plate offence, £150 for the second ’R’ plate offence, and £400 for driving without due care and attention.

He also had his driving licence endorsed with eight penalty points, bringing his total to 10.

His ’R’ plate period was extended until October 2018.