A TEENAGER with more than 80 offences on his record has been sentenced to 18 months youth custody for his part in taking a taxi, which was driven along tram tracks.

A tram was forced to stop as the Skoda came towards it at David Lane tram crossing, Old Basford. Passengers had to make their own way home.

Ben Wilson, 18, who was a passenger in the Skoda, was arrested and charged with aggravated vehicle-taking.

He was sentenced at Nottingham Crown Court yesterday to 18 months in youth custody and disqualified from driving for two years.

Recorder Stuart Rafferty QC said the fact Wilson was the passenger and not the driver when the tram was forced to stop on June 6 was irrelevant as far as the law is concerned.

He said: "People could have died. Cars had to take evasive action. Trams had to take evasive action."

Wilson has 22 convictions for 83 offences, 43 of those happened when he was on bail, and on five occasions he had been involved in an aggravated vehicle taking-offence.

"You are 18 and your record is appalling," said the judge. "To some extent that might not be your fault because you have got problems, you had problems, I expect you will always have problems.

"But because of that you are a danger to the public.

"How it is you haven't killed yourself or someone else yet behind the wheel of a car I really don't know. I suspect, tragically, it is only a matter of time."

Wilson, of Mansfield Road, Sherwood, was released from his last sentence two days before he was involved in this offence.

The Skoda had been taken in Stapleford from a taxi driver by a man claiming to be his fare.

The car was next seen in Church Street, at the junction to Western Boulevard, Basford, by police.

Officers were behind the car when it sped away, turning onto Nottingham Road and then to Vernon Road, where the driver went on the wrong side. No one else was arrested at the scene.

The court was told in mitigation that Wilson, who pleaded guilty, had "no appreciation of the wider consequences of his actions". He had been pleading with his friend to stop the car.

Recorder Rafferty finally told Wilson: "I would like to hope that when you come out you might be ready to change, but I'm afraid that might be whistling in the dark."