A TEENAGER who took a car and wrecked it in a crash after smoking cannabis has been locked up for two months.

Ashley Wade, 18, of Leighfleets, Benfleet, was driving an MG ZR in Belton Way, Leigh, when it smashed into another car and a lamp post.

A passenger in the car suffered a broken hip in the accident and was thrown from the vehicle.

Wade, who was sentenced at Southend Magistrates’ Court, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to taking a vehicle without consent, driving it without a proper licence and driving without insurance.

Samantha Lowther, prosecuting, said police were called at 11.35pm on May 8 by an ambulance crew.

One of the passengers was found lying on the grass by the road with a broken hip. The car, worth £3,500, was written off and had been taken from someone Wade knew, the court heard.

When police arrested him, Wade admitted smoking cannabis earlier that day.

Ann Blyth-Cook, defending, said one of the passengers was thrown from the vehicle and that Wade and another man initially ran from the scene before he handed himself in to police.

She said: “He’s done all he could to make amends. Within an hour, he told police what happened.

“He appreciated he’s caused a great deal of stress and financial loss to the owner of the vehicle.”

Mrs Blyth-Cook added: “He made a terrible mistake but, unlike many, he’s tried his best to make it better.”

In his sentencing, district judge Shlomo Kreiman, said: “The court thinks it is so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence will do.”

Wade was sent to a young offender institution for nine weeks, of which he will serve half in prison.

He will also have his licence endorsed and will be banned from driving for 18 months.