A disqualified driver has admitted stealing a van while he was drunk and driving it to the hospital.

Jason Liam Christian pleaded guilty to taking a vehicle without consent, drink-driving, driving while disqualified and having no insurance.

He will be sentenced on August 31 after a probation report has been prepared.

A second man who was with Christian, Lee Cowell, admitted knowingly being a passenger in a vehicle taken without consent.

He was fined £300 plus £125 prosecution costs.

Prosecuting advocate Peter Connick told the court that, on July 11 at 3am, Christian and Cowell arrived at Accident and Emergency at Noble’s Hospital seeking medical treatment, after it was alleged that Cowell had hit a cigarette disposal unit and injured his hand.

They came in a van marked Stewart Clague Services Limited.

Police were called and when they arrived, at 3.50am, they saw 30-year-old Christian driving the van with Cowell, who is 48, in the passenger seat.

They were spoken to and Christian was described as smelling of alcohol, having glazed eyes, and a laboured demeanour.

Police contacted the employee in Ramsey, to whom the van was linked, and he checked outside, then confirmed that it was missing and said that he hadn’t given anyone permission to take it.

He said that the keys were usually in his kitchen but he could not be sure that they had not been in the van.

Christian, who lives at Bircham Avenue Close in Ramsey, is in breach of a 12-month probation order, imposed in June after he told emergency services he was going to ‘cut people’s heads off’ with a chainsaw, and is also disqualified from driving until 2027.

His defence advocate Peter Taylor asked for a probation report to be completed before sentencing.

Magistrates agreed to sentence Cowell, who lives at Darragh Passage in Douglas, immediately and he was represented in court by advocate Stephen Wood.

licence

Cowell is currently on licence after being released from jail early, but Mr Wood pointed out that probation had not recalled him to prison as a result of the latest offence.

Mr Wood said: ‘As a boy I enjoyed the works of Lewis Carroll.

‘I’m not sure which Tweedle Mr Cowell is, going up to A & E to get your hand checked because you’ve hit something.

‘But he is not before the court for taking the vehicle.

‘There was a suggestion that something was damaged, but he’s not before the court for criminal damage.

‘Mr Cowell is a man who gets into a van driven by his friend who drives it up to A & E.

‘As a set of circumstances it beggars belief.’

Cowell’s probation officer said that Cowell himself had offered to do community service but Mr Wood said that this may be setting him up to fail as if he didn’t do the hours, he could end up being sent back to prison due to his licence.

Magistrates ordered Cowell to pay the fine and costs at a rate of £10 per week, deducted from benefits.