AN ANDOVER teenager was in for a life changing experience after he persuaded a local businessman to take him to prom in his sports car.

Former Harrow Way pupil Corey Brooker, 16, who unable to find a lift to his school prom, managed to secure himself a ride after a chance encounter with businessman Joel Kirby in a McDonalds car park.

Joel, 29, said: “Basically, I had finished up playing football, and I went to the McDonalds at Portway.

“There was a group of kids outside McDonalds, and I went through the drive-through and they had obviously waited and clocked me going in and waited for me to go out the other side.

READ MORE: "I was shaking with excitement": Andover teenager escorted to prom by VIP security detail

“I thought they wanted to cross the road, but Corey waved my attention, and he came over and said, ‘Nice car’, I said, ‘Oh, thank you very much’, and he said, ‘If I give you £200, and you’re not busy tomorrow, could you take me to my prom?’”

As he was already giving someone a lift to the same school prom, Joel refused to take any money, and instead said that he would give Corey a lift for free.

Joel later posted the story of what happened on social media website LinkedIn, where it went viral.

At time of writing, the post has amassed 91,686 likes and has been shared 272 times.

Joel has even been recognised while out driving due to the post.

He said: “They’ve seen the car, recognised the number plate and said ‘Oh, you’re that guy who took that kid to prom, on LinkedIn’, and I’m like ‘yeah!’”.

Inspired by his bravery in asking for a lift, Joel later offered Corey a job at his insurance firm Monopoly Insurance Services Ltd.

Corey said he wanted to thank Joel for everything, saying: “I’m so grateful for Joel.

SEE ALSO: Academy students praised for the help they gave during community day

“He even gave me a job two or three days after prom, and I work here a couple of days a week now.

“It’s been brilliant.”

Joel said: “We gave Corey a job afterwards, because if you don’t ask, you don’t get.

“He’s obviously got some intuition about himself.

“He wants to go into business and finance while he’s at college, so we said that we’ll have him employed with us and we’ll try and find him something.”

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