TWO brothers who led police on a high-speed pursuit through a town before crashing and fleeing the scene on foot have been jailed.

Rikki Copping, 32, was behind the wheel of a stolen Land Rover Discovery, with his 30-year-old brother, Thomas, a passenger, when police stopped them in Bishop Auckland in the early hours of March 26, after seeing them driving on the wrong side of the road.

Officers, who got out to speak to the older brother noticed his eyes were bloodshot and he smelt of alcohol, Durham Crown Court was told.

He then drove off with the police in pursuit, reaching 60mph in a 30mph zone, going around a mini roundabout the wrong way, mounting a kerb narrowly missing a street lamp.

At one point, Copping stopped and reversed toward the police officers' patrol car, forcing them to take evasive action.

The car was followed into a field, where Rikki Copping lost control and the car flipped over and landed on its roof.

Passing sentence, Judge Simon Hickey said: “Fortunately you weren’t injured. The Land Rover was obviously driven with no regard to anyone on the road and with no regard to your brother. The police say two shadows then ran off and hid under a hedge.

"This caused an immense amount of disruption to the police. They had to call out a helicopter to give chase."

Rikki Copping of Lansbury Drive, Birtley, near Chester-le-Street, was convicted following a trial, of aggravated vehicle taking and dangerous driving.

Jailing him for 18 months in jail and banning him from driving for three years, the judge said: “Anyone who drives away from police in County Durham when they ask you to stop - anyone who reverses toward a police car - will automatically go to prison in my judgement, specially with a record such as yours."

His brother of Brewer Street, Bishop Auckland, who admitted being carried during an aggravated vehicle taking, was disqualified for 12 months. The judge said: "You could have easily have said to your brother, specially when the police had stopped you, 'stop and don’t drive away any further'."

Dan Cordey, mitigating for the older brother, said he was a father-of-two and at the time of the incident, he had started business, which had now been taken away from him.

John Devlin, mitigating for the younger brother said: "There is no suggestion of any encouragement, save for his presence."