A teenager who rolled his car near the Devil’s Elbow has been fined by magistrates.
Jenson Artus did not appear on Thursday as he pleaded guilty by post and was on a long planned trip abroad.
The prosecution said that police were called to the Devil’s Elbow on the A4 Peel to Kirk Michael coast road on December 14 2023 after reports of a crash involving a Ford Fiesta.
When police arrived Artus told them he thought the steering had failed on the car, with a witness saying they thought he was driving “a little too quickly” before the crash.
An inspection of the car later found it to be in an “unroadworthy condition” but that none of the defects would have contributed to the crash.
These defects included a broken rear brake light and defective rear brakes.
In an interview Artus said he denied driving the vehicle at excessive speed and said he couldn’t remember when it was last serviced as it was a family spare car.
While not present, the court heard a written mitigation from Artus that said he disagreed with the prosecution’s version of events and that he was that he was only using the vehicle as his own car had displayed an error warning earlier that day.
He put the accident down to the difference of how the cars handle, one being over 20 years old, his own usual car being much newer and with improved handling.
Artus added that he had been “naive” but not reckless.
Magistrates fined the 17-year-old £950 and ordered him to pay £50 costs.
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