Footballer convicted for taking and writing-off £16,000 car

Lee Thomas Healey, a striker with Bangor City FC, was due to appear at Welshpool Magistrates Court yesterday.

Healey, of Roughwood Drive in Kirby, near Liverpool, was convicted in his absence and a warrant without bail was issued – meaning he will be arrested and remanded in custody until his next court appearance.

The 28-year-old faced a charge of taking an Audi A3 without consent in Newtown on February 1. He then drove the car into a public telephone box, a Royal Mail postbox and a grit bin, causing more than £2,000 of damage and writing off the car.

Magistrates heard that the car belonged to Sarah Mitchell-Hughes and her husband Neil Mitchell, who live in Newtown.

Giving evidence, Mrs Mitchell-Hughes said they had met Healey during a night out in the town with friends. She said he had gone back to their house at the end of the night as he had nowhere else to stay.

"We went to bed between 3.30am and 4am, then around 4.15am the door opened and he asked if he could go outside for a cigarette," Mrs Mitchell-Hughes said. "I told him to go out of the front and leave the door on the latch. A little bit later I thought I heard a car being started and driving off.

"I went to sleep and then I was woken about 5.55am by two policemen at the end of my bed. They got in because Lee Healey left the door on the latch when he went out.

"The police told me my car had been involved in an incident and was left unattended. There was £16,000 of damage to the car. It was a write-off."

Mrs Mitchell-Hughes said she later discovered the car keys were missing. She said neither she or her husband had given Healey permission to drive the car. Healey was arrested later the same day after being spotted walking down a road by an off-duty policeman.

At an earlier hearing Healey admitted charges of drink-driving on the same day on the B4568 at Bettws Cedewain, near Newtown, driving without insurance and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence during the short hearing.

In the case of the drink-driving, he was found to have 47 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35. He will be sentenced on the three matters he has admitted along with the taking without consent charge at a future date.