A TEENAGE gambling addict who escaped from pursuing police on a 125cc moped has been jailed.

Joshua Hodgson was stopped by police at 3.05am on Thursday, March 22, after being spotted in Darlington town centre riding an Aprilla moped with a pillion passenger who was not wearing a helmet.

He let the passenger off, but then made off because he had nine points on his licence and feared losing it.

Hodgson, of Forest Drive, Colburn, near Catterick Garrison, managed to evade chasing officers until he was traced to an address in Staindrop Road, from where he sped off towards the A67.

In an interview with police, Hodgson said he thought he hit speeds of 65mph through villages before abandoning the moped between some garages in High Coniscliffe, but officers told him his bike had only reached 50mph.

Northallerton Magistrates’ Court heard a week earlier, Hodgson had approached a young mother with a child in a pushchair in Hipswell Road, Catterick Garrison, and asked to borrow her £200 mobile phone.

Sandra White, prosecuting, said after making a brief call, he rode off on his scooter before returning and asking to use the woman’s phone again.

She said: “As she knew him through a friend and the previous call had been quick she agreed. But this time he walked back to his moped and rode off with the phone.”

Hodgson, 19, admitted theft, driving a vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence, failing to stop and driving without due care and attention.

A spokesman for the Probation Service said, despite being given a suspended jail sentence in February this year for criminal damage, theft from a house and failing to surrender, Hodgson had regularly failed to attend meetings.

Alan Meehan mitigating, said Hodgson had been taking drugs since he was 17 and had been gambling on anything for a year.

He said: “The future looks bleak for this 19-year-old boy.

He has substantial issues that need addressing and is looking for help, but doesn’t know where to turn.”

Sentencing Hodgson to two months’ jail and imposing a six-month driving ban, magistrate Julia Svennevig told him: “You have taken little heed of the suspended sentence and we have no alternative but to send you to prison.”