Learner driver spared jail after high speed chase (From The Northern Echo)

Learner driver spared jail after high speed chase

7:00am Thursday 28th February 2013 in News

A RECKLESS learner who led police on a danger car chase through residential streets boasted to officers when he was arrested: "That driving was brilliant."

Patrick Bradley, 21, careered down the wrong side of roads, went straight over a cross-road, narrowly missed another vehicle and sped across grassed areas.

He abandoned the Vauxhall Vectra and fled, but was spotted by a police helicopter crew brought in to help the hunt and was found hiding in a nearby house.

Judge Les Spittle told him yesterday (Wednesday, February 27): "Your driving certainly wasn't brilliant, it was appalling. You may have thought it was great or exciting. It wasn't."

Bradley narrowly avoided prison but was warned by the judge that he will be locked up if he breaches his suspended sentence or fails with his supervision.

He was also ordered to take an extended test after serving a three-year ban, and the judge said: "You really have to prove you're a good driver to pass."

Teesside Crown Court heard how police chased the hatchback around the Owton Manor estate in Hartlepool at speeds of up to 60mph on May 22 last year.

Jane Foley, mitigating, described Bradley as immature, but said a probation worker concluded he might finally be in a position to change his ways.

"Essentially, he has struggled in the past with drugs and alcohol, and that, it seems, underpins his historic offending," Miss Foley told the judge.

Bradley, of Innes Road, Hartlepool, who has 13 offences on his record including driving while disqualified, admitted a charge of dangerous driving.

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