'Frustrated' driver's 400-mile trip

A 'frustrated bus driver' took a National Express coach on a 400-mile two-day trip, Bristol magistrates were told yesterday.

Robert Hamill, 19, of Wells, Somerset, stole a driver's jacket and convinced staff that he was an official driver. From Bristol he followed set routes to Poole, Basingstoke, London, Oxford and Birmingham and eventually abandoned the coach in Exeter.

Michael Pulsford, for the defence, said: Hamill 'drove the coach in a perfect and impeccable manner . . . He can only be described as a frustrated coach driver who has a real problem with coaches.'

Hamill admitted taking the coach, stealing a blazer, driving while disqualified and without insurance and obtaining diesel by deception. Sentencing was postponed.