Stolen motorbike teen nearly hit OAP and schoolchildren in Edinburgh

Georgie Road Rail bridge. Picture: Ian Rutherford.

At the city’s Sheriff Court today the boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pled guilty to driving a black Honda motorbike, which had been stolen five days earlier, dangerously on August 30 last year.

Fiscal Depute, Lorna Ferrier, told Sheriff Frank Crowe that around 3 pm the police saw the youth driving the bike in Queensferry Road with a pillion passenger and when he saw the officers the accused narrowly avoided parked cars and drove along the pavement. As he made off at high speed, the Fiscal said, the pillion passenger: “made an offensive hand gesture to the police”.

At 3.20 pm a witness saw the bike going through a red traffic light in Gorgie Road at speed.

Ms Ferrier said that in Westfield Road, an elderly woman, walking with the aid of a walking frame, crossed the road and the bike had to swerve to avoid her. The woman, she added, as visibly shaken. Between 3.30 and 4 pm, as the bike passed a school teacher, one of the persons on the bike shouted “Miss”. The teacher, said the Fiscal, recognised the driver as the accused and that the bike was being followed by a police car.

As the bike approached a road junction, busy with traffic, the youth drove across four lanes, weaving in and out of the traffic and, as drivers braked to avoid a collision, he mounted a pavement. Approaching another junction said the Fiscal, the accused failed to see some school pupils in uniforms crossing the road and drove through the middle of the group, narrowly avoiding colliding with them.

The chase ended at 4.20 pm when the youth lost control of the bike.

Sheriff Crowe told the accused: “These are very serious charges of dangerous driving and it is very fortunate no-one was seriously hurt”. He deferred sentence for a Criminal Justice Report and advice from the Childrens’ Panel. The boy was ordered to return to the court on June 28th.