AN uninsured driver who gave a friend's name to police for the second time will spend Christmas behind bars.

Michael Carty looked shocked when a judge at Teesside Crown Court told him yesterday: "It has to be prison."

Carty, 22, escaped with a fine for giving false details last year when he had been stopped for motoring crimes.

On that occasion, he gave the name and date-of-birth of a friend, prosecutor Rachel Masters told the court.

Yet just months later, he repeated the trick when he was stopped on the A19 near Thirsk, North Yorkshire.

Carty's pal was reported for having no insurance, but when police saw him, they realised he had not been the driver.

When it emerged that he had done it before the former soldier was finally arrested, said Miss Masters.

Carty, of Kings Street, South Bank, Middlesbrough, admitted pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, said his previous conviction - for obstructing police - put him in peril.

"You are interfering, wrongly, with the way that justice is dealt with in this country," the judge told him.

"People like you, who are tempted to give officers a false name and address are committing a serious offence."

James Fenny, mitigating, said: "He hasn't, for one minute, appreciated the ramifications of that stupid act.

"He has been advised of the seriousness now. He is very sorry for what he has done . . . the penny has dropped.

"He was horrified by what huge implications there have been . . . he is frightened of going to prison."