The 14-year-old pleaded guilty in Wagga Children’s Court this week to five charges – vehicle theft, police pursuit, dangerous driving, speeding by more than 30km/h and unlicensed driving.

A 15-year-old mate has been charged with being a passenger in the vehicle. He has not entered a plea to the charge. Both Ashmont teenagers are in custody.

Police allege the younger boy stole the panel van from Heydon Avenue about 9.20pm on May 15 and picked up his friend nearby.

Police saw the vehicle in Ashmont about 10.14pm and initiated a pursuit that reached the Olympic Highway in minutes. Between Ashmont and near Kohlhagen’s Road, the panel van was driven on the wrong side of the road and at no less than 130km/h.

Police called off the pursuit because of safety fears but found the panel van abandoned beside the road a few minutes later and then caught the boys as they were lying in the grass. Police said that when they interviewed the driver he “did not show any remorse for his actions, stating that if other cars came the other way he would dodge them”.

The boy will be sentenced in June, while his friend will have a mental health assessment before also returning to court next month.

Meanwhile, magistrate Erin Kennedy has ordered Juvenile Justice and the Department of Family and Community Services to work together to find suitable accommodation for a 13-year-old Tolland boy charged with breaching his bail.

Police detained the boy in McKell Avenue about 11pm on May 15, four hours outside his curfew. He was interviewed about a number of stolen vehicles that night, including one that hit a parked ambulance in Glenfield Park about 10pm.

He denied involvement in the thefts, but was charged with breaching conditions of bail he was on for two unrelated charges.

The boy’s solicitor told the court her client left his home on Friday night because his mother was out and he was bored.

“It’s no good in my view you were out at 11 o’clock at night, but equally I think you need to be found a place to live long-term, you need a better option in your life,” Ms Kennedy said before making an accommodation order returnable to the court on May 20.