A BANNED driver who led police on a chase through Darlington town centre was yesterday jailed for 15 months.

Karl Wilson's barrister urged a judge to impose a suspended sentence because prison had not worked for his client in the past.

Dan Cordey said it was becoming more difficult for Wilson to explain to his three children his absence from home while he was in custody.

Mr Cordey said it was time for 27-year-old Wilson to grow up and take responsibility for his actions, but pleaded for leniency.

But Judge Peter Fox told Wilson: "One day, whether it is from the affection for your children you will realise that the only way to spend time with them and to be a good father is to keep out of trouble."

Teesside Crown Court was told that Wilson, of Edgemoor Road, Darlington, had eight previous convictions for driving while disqualified and one for dangerous driving.

Yesterday, he was sentenced after admitting dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, driving without insurance, possessing an offensive weapon and resisting arrest on March 8.

Jenny Haigh, prosecuting, told the court that police spotted Wilson in a BMW in Haughton Road, and pulled up behind him because he was not wearing a seatbelt.

A chase over two-and-a-half miles followed during which Wilson reached speeds of up to 85mph in 30mph zones. He almost hit two learner drivers and drove the wrong way around roundabouts. Miss Haigh said other motorists and pedestrians had to take evasive action to avoid collisions as Wilson sped along Yarm Road, Geneva Road and Fenby Avenue before colliding with a fence.

Wilson ran from the car, but was caught in a half-built house, and police had to twice use pepper spray to stop him attacking them and trying to escape. Officers found a police-style telescopic baton in the car.

The Recorder of Middlesbrough, Judge Fox, told the labourer: "If I thought it would be sufficient punishment and an effective deterrent, I would do what Mr Cordey asks me to do, but I don't think it would work or be sufficient.

"This dangerous driving in the middle of the day through the suburbs, and in part, a particularly busy part of Darlington, was hair-raisingly dangerous.

"You must have scared those two learner-drivers, and you narrowly missed a number of other vehicles."

Mr Cordey had earlier told the court: "Karl Wilson has been getting into trouble now for coming up to a decade.

"When he was 17 years of age, this kind of offending was quite common among young men, but now at 27, one would have hoped he had sufficient maturity to grow out of this vehicle-related offending.

"He has asked me to say if he is given a chance he will take it. He is someone, who for one reason or another, finds it difficult to keep away from cars, but he accepts he must do that."