A TEENAGER has been banned from the roads after he took his friend's car for Christmas Day drunken joyride.

George Hannah was arrested at 2am on December 25 after he was seen by police driving the wrong way down the one-way Langney Road in Eastbourne.

He had been given the keys to a friend's Vauxhall Corsa to get his jacket from inside but had then got behind the wheel and had two friends in the passenger seats.

Not only was he over the drink-drive limit but he had no licence or insurance.

Hannah, of Queen Elizabeth Close, Battle, pleaded guilty to drink-driving, driving without a licence and driving without insurance when he appeared at Hastings Magistrates' Court on February 18.

He was banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay a £550 fine, £40 costs and a £27 victim surcharge.

Chief Inspector Phil Nicholas, from Surrey and Sussex roads policing unit, said: "Hannah put not only his life but that of his friends and other road users in danger by his selfish actions.

"He had not even passed his driving test but thought it was acceptable while on a night out to get behind the wheel of a car after he had been drinking.

"Drink-driving is totally unacceptable and we have officers out every day looking for people like Hannah who think the law does not apply to them.”