'Stupid' Leeds teen reported crashed Peugeot stolen, but his DNA was found on airbag

Tre Manner-Gatewood was caught out after DNA taken from the driver's airbag matched his. He was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice, but narrowly avoided an immediate custodial sentence after the judge took into account his age, his lack of previous convictions and that his sick grandmother needed him as a carer.

Judge Simon Batiste told him at Leeds Crown Court: "You are a remarkably fortunate man today, I should lock you up. It is never pleasant to lock someone up who has never been in trouble before and has done something remarkably stupid as you have. Be under no illusions, I'm giving you one chance and one chance only."

The court heard that a resident on Ash Road in Headingley heard a loud bag outside his home just before 1am on 21 January last year. He looked out of his window to see a Peugeot had smashed into a parked vehicle. Two men had got out and were laughing and joking. They were also carrying balloons and canisters, which Judge Batiste considered was potentially nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas which was recently made illegal.

They then ran off leaving the smashed vehicles. The police were called to the scene. The parked vehicle, which was worth £11,000, was written off. Officers also took swabs of the airbags that had been deployed in the Peugeot when it crashed.

But Manner-Gatewood, who is now 19, called the police and told them his car had been stolen sometime the night before. When the DNA results came back he went to the police station for a voluntary interview, prosecutor Anthony Moore said.

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His phone was also checked and it showed it had connected with a cell-site tower close to Ash Road around the time of the crash, and not at his home in Lindsey Court in Burmantofts, where he claimed he was.

Mitigating, Shannon Woodley said: "It was not a sophisticated plan. It was a grossly stupid decision made by an 18-year-old born out of immaturity and panic. He was very young and never been in trouble before. He knows what the authorities say about this type of offending and is very scared of the prospect [of going to prison]. It's taught him a very stark lesson."

Judge Batiste gave him a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years, with 150 hours of unpaid work and a six-month electronically-tagged curfew from 10pm to 6am. He was also told to pay £500 compensation to the owner of the car, to cover the excess she was forced to pay her insurance company.