A YOUNG unqualified driver is now serving back-to-back custodial sentences for motoring offences, some committed while on bail for previous matters.

Stephen William King was given a 20-month sentence in a young offenders’ institution after changing his plea on the day of his scheduled Durham Crown Court trial on charges of dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, while under the influence of drugs and without insurance.

Twenty-year-old King, of Howlish View, Bishop Auckland, was detained after trying to run from the abandoned Vauxhall Astra, at the end of a three-mile late night police pursuit through Shildon, and nearby villages.

The court heard a patrol car officer spotted King at the wheel of the Astra, containing four passengers, turning from Scott Street onto Redworth Road, at 11.40pm on July 16 last year.

Penny Bottomley, prosecuting, said during the five minute chase that followed, King exceeded 50-miles per hour on 30-limit roads in residential areas, and reached almost 80-miles per hour on Eldon Bank.

He went on to take the oncoming cross-roads “blind”, despite having no view of potential traffic from the left.

Miss Bottomley said the Astra was driven over a police-deployed stinger device and came to a halt when blocked by another vehicle.

The court heard that while on bail, King committed further motoring offences, on December 31 and earlier this month, for which he recently received a 12-week custodial sentence.

Simon Perkins, mitigating, conceded King’s driving was, “plainly dangerous”.

He added: “Unfortunately, it’s the nature of our society that young men and cars are drawn together.”

Passing sentence, to start after the 12-week term King is now serving, Judge Christopher Prince told him: “You put the lives and welfare of others, including your passengers, at risk by driving off in the manner you did, at a time of night when people were making their way home from licensed premises.”

King was also banned from driving for 22 months.