A teenage boy broke into a golf club and hotwired a ride-on lawnmower before taking it on a low-speed joyride for a mile.
The youth, now 17, admitted stealing the vehicle from Craigie Hill Golf Club in Perth after breaking in during the early hours of the morning.
Perth Sheriff Court was told he smashed through a bollard and drove the sit-on mower for around a mile before leaving it abandoned by a pond.
He was 16 at the time and cannot be named for legal reasons.
A Facebook post by the club stated the stunt had resulted in the “complete destruction” of the vehicle.
Followed lawn-mower tracks
Fiscal depute Andrew Harding told the court: “The head greenkeeper at the golf club received a phone call from a volunteer at 8.10am to say an entrance gate had been opened.
“The gate was lying open and a padlock had been removed.
“A John Deere vehicle was missing.
“They noticed tracks on the ground and started to follow them.
“They turned out onto a public footpath.
“One of the bollards had been flattened, which they believed had been caused by the stolen vehicle.
“The tracks were followed for about a mile and led to the vehicle, which had been abandoned by a small pond.
“It appeared the vehicle wiring had been tampered with, in order to start it.”
Job irony
Mr Harding said the boy was found a few days later in a car park and he tried to run off when he spotted police.
He was carrying keys to a car he had been driving without insurance on March 18.
“The accused admitted he had been driving the vehicle,” Mr Harding said.
“He also admitted taking the buggy from the golf course.”
Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said “it was a sit-on lawnmower” the boy had stolen from the golf club on March 13.
He said: “He has now got a job as a landscaper, which is ironic given his previous experience with the lawnmower.”
Sheriff Euan Duthie deferred sentence on the Perth teenager until December 7.
