A teenager who crashed a car into a police vehicle injuring the driver has been given a chance by a judge to continue his studies to become a mechanic.
Liam Anderson was driving a Vauxhall Corsa, which had been taken without consent, when it hit the police vehicle in Parkwood Street, Keighley, last April.
Prosecutor Duncan Ritchie told Bradford Crown Court how the Corsa had already swerved to miss another police car in St Paul's Road, Bradford, before it struck the second police vehicle.
The driver of the police vehicle immediately suffered pain in his back.
Anderson, of Heber Street, Keighley, tried to run off, together with another man who had been in the Corsa, but a colleague of the injured driver chased him to a nearby yard where he later gave himself up.
During his police interview Anderson, who had previous convictions for car-related offending, claimed he was not driving the Corsa at the time but at a later court hearing he admitted offences of aggravated vehicle taking and dangerous driving.
Mr Ritchie said the injured police officer spent six days off work with muscular pain but had since made a full recovery. Anderson's lawyer, Stephen Couch, described his client as a "reformed character" since the incident and Judge Roger Scott was given details about his college course and a part-time job.
After highlighting the good reports about Anderson, Judge Scott told him: "I think that I will take a risk with you and not send you to a young offenders' institution." But Judge Scott warned the 18-year-old that if he breached any part of the community order he was making he would come back before him and be locked up for 15 months.
As part of the community sentence, Anderson must be subject to supervision for two years, take part in an enhanced thinking skills programme and do 80 hours unpaid work.
He was also banned from driving for 12 months and must then take an extended driving test before going on the roads again. I think you're very lucky. We will see," added Judge Scott.
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