Oscar Martel-Welsh, 18, of Rue des Longs Camps, St Saviour’s, admitted a charge of dangerous driving when he appeared in the Magistrate’s Court.
The court was told how a witness had been driving in the lanes of St Peter’s at Route de la Palloterie at about 10.45pm one night, and was approaching the sharp bends that link it to La Rue du Manoir when he saw the defendant’s Ford Fiesta coming in the opposite direction.
It was fully, or at least partly, on the wrong side of the road, and he thought the driver was speeding.
The defendant’s car narrowly missed his own before it hit the bank. Police were called. The defendant told officers he had only owned his car for about four weeks and had been dazzled by the lights of the other vehicle.
He said he did not know how fast he had been travelling.
Defending, Advocate Peter Ferbrache said his client had been given the car as a birthday present and it had been written off in the crash.
He said that Martel-Welsh said he had looked in his rear-view mirror for a friend who had been driving behind him.
The next thing he saw was the other car, which was on the correct side of the road, coming towards him.
His client had no previous convictions and was an inexperienced driver, having passed his test not that long ago.
Deputy Judge Graeme McKerrell said the defendant might have been an inexperienced driver, but he had been deemed competent to drive by the fact that he had passed his test.
He took into account his previous record and the fact that he was genuinely remorseful.
When sentencing, he would take into account the four weeks that the defendant had already been prevented from driving by a bail condition.
He fined him £700 and banned him from driving for four months.