A TEENAGE motorist led police on a 100mph chase less than a month after he was banned from the roads.

Ian Thompson-Townsend was jailed for a year after being told by a judge: "This was one of the worst sorts of dangerous driving that these courts get to see."

Thompson-Townsend, of Grange Estate, Lazenby, east Cleveland, was also banned from driving for five years when he appeared at Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

Katherine Dunn, prosecuting, said the 18-year-old was disqualified for drink driving when he appeared in court on July 19 but was back behind the wheel on August 12.

A police officer followed him from the car park of the Tall Trees nightclub in Yarm at about 2.30am and watched him pick up two passengers at the nearby railway station and head off towards the A19.

Thompson-Townsend ignored repeated requests to stop and reached speeds of up to 100mph on the dual-carriageway and 90mph in 40mph limits heading towards east Cleveland.

Miss Dunn said other cars were forced to take evasive action as the Vauxhall Corsa went out of control, mounted a pavement and was driven on the wrong side of the road during the seven-mile chase.

Thompson-Townsend also rammed a patrol car and finally abandoned the hatchback in Lazenby before climbing over another car and running across a garden.

Miss Dunn said he was found by a police dog and was asked to take a breath test. However, the test showed he was not over the alcohol limit.

Recorder Julian Goose told the teenager: "It is a matter of pure fortune that those in your car were not seriously injured and it is a matter of pure fortune that people were not killed by your driving.

"It was shameful driving and highly dangerous."

Defence barrister Paul Cleasby urged the judge to impose a community penalty because of Thompson-Townsend's age and his early guilty pleas to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance and criminal damage to the car he jumped on.

But Recorder Goose told him: "This court has no confidence that such an order would be right for someone who,within three weeks of being disqualified from driving, took part in driving like this."