A "PATHOLOGICAL liar" with an overdeveloped skill set for manipulation has pleaded guilty to torching an old van, stolen apparently to flee the state.
Kevin Lawrence Davenport, 18, of Launceston, appeared in the Supreme Court via video link yesterday.
The court heard Davenport set out from his grandmother's house last October to dodge police and ended up stealing a car from Kings Meadows with a co-accused.
The plan had been to drive to Hobart and fly interstate.
The car broke down on the Southern Outlet where it was pushed, with the help of a passing motorist, on to the shoulder of the Midland Highway.
Davenport stole some items from the vehicle and proceeded to set it alight.
"I didn't think it was funny but these things happen," he told police.
Defence counsel Adrian Hall handed what he described as "one of the more colourful" presentence reports he'd read to Justice Helen Wood.
It said the teenager was a pathological liar who possessed an overdeveloped skill set for manipulation, he said.
Mr Hall said there were few mitigating circumstances surrounding Davenport's first adult offence but noted most of the details of the crime had come from his client.
Davenport was ordered to reappear on March 27 for sentencing.
He has already been sentenced for stealing the car in the Launceston Magistrates Court.
