A TEENAGER who took his mum's car for a joyride after drinking is still paying for his action.

Darren Fleming put on a spectacular display of bad driving as police tailed him.

He tailgated another motorist and swerved from side to side trying to overtake on the inside, cut in sharply, mounted the pavement and then ploughed into a lamppost.

The impact was so bad his mother's car had to be written off.

A Sheriff was told Fleming of Todholm Terrace, Paisley, is now paying off more than £6000 owed to the car finance company by his mother.

And the 18-year-old has also now been fined £600 at Paisley Sheriff Court.

In addition Fleming was banned from driving for two years and ordered to re-sit the extended test of competency.

He admitted driving dangerously and at excessive speed in Paisley when he appeared sheepishly in the dock.

He also admitted driving without a full licence or insurance and while two times over the drink-drive limit.

Around midnight on July 26 last year police on patrol spotted Fleming's "poor lane discipline", followed and watched as it swerved from lane to lane.

In Hawkhead Road he crashed into the lamp standard.

He was arrested and taken to Paisley's Mill Street police HQ where he tested positive for drink-driving.

Agent Jonathan Manson told the court that the episode had been a "financial disaster" for the family. The car had been purchased shortly before Fleming went joyriding.

Fleming's mother had taken out finance but the car was now useless and she had to buy another, so she was making him work to make the payments.

He is due to start a new job in three weeks and would be handing over all his earnings until all the finance was repaid, the court heard.