A MAN went on a drunken joyride in a stolen car from Weston to Clevedon and back again, before handing himself in to the police hours later.

Adam Bowers took the vehicle on June 4 from a home in Weston after a drinking session in the town centre, before taking it on a 34-mile round-trip.

By the time he returned to Worle and abandoned the car it had suffered such terrible damage that it will now have to be written off.

Only hours later he handed himself in at Weston Police Station and owned up to the crime.

At North Somerset Courthouse on Monday the 23-year-old was sentenced by magistrates after admitting a charge of aggravated vehicle taking and vehicle damage under �5,000.

Jane Cooper, prosecuting, said Bowers had drunk about two litres of cider and a bottle of vodka throughout the day on June 3 at his home in Harvey Close.

Having walked into Weston to continue drinking, he was returning to his home in the early hours of the morning when he spotted the blue Nissan Primera parked on the side of the road.

Emily Evans, defending, said her client had spotted the car key still in the door, and got in.

He drove the car up to Clevedon on the A-road, where one of its tyres blew out.

He then drove it back to Worle with only three functioning tyres, before it stalled in Becket Road.

Getting out, he smashed the windscreen before abandoning the vehicle.

The next morning he telephoned the police, saying he had found the car abandoned and tried to move it off the road to lessen danger to members of the public, but then went into the police station and admitted that he had taken the car.

He also wrote an apology letter to its owners.

At Monday’s hearing Ms Evans told the magistrates that Bowers had a problem with alcohol, a troubled childhood and borderline split-personality disorder, and had shown remorse after his crime.

Magistrates sentenced him to a 12-month community order in which he must keep regular appointments with a probation officer.

He was also ordered to pay �300 in compensation to the car’s owner and �85 in costs, while he has been disqualified from driving for 12 months.