A DRIVER who twice tried to outrun police and raced another car through a town centre was last night behind bars.

Matthew Clark was branded "a dangerous individual" when a judge jailed him for more than three years.

Clark, from Darlington, was told he had repeatedly put the lives of others at risk with his motoring madness.

In one police pursuit through a 30mph zone, the 23-year-old menace reached speeds of 100mph, a court was told.

The chase was just four months after Clark was given a suspended jail term for racing another driver in Darlington.

And a pursuit in October - which ended in him crashing a Volkswagen Golf - was while he was on bail for the race.

Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, told Clark he had no regard for other people as he jailed him for 37 months.

The judge said: "It is something of a miracle that nobody died or was injured as a result of your driving."

Teesside Crown Court heard how Clark had barely been in trouble before being involved in three offences in a year.

Last February, he raced a Golf in his Citroen Saxo, and was given a seven-month suspended sentence in December.

In October, he crashed his Golf after police chased him at speeds of up to 80mph through parts of Darlington.

Prosecutor Shaun Dryden said Clark lost control in Whessoe Road after driving on the wrong side of the road.

When he was arrested, police found cocaine and cannabis on him, and he tested positive for drugs, said Mr Dryden.

On April 4, police saw Clark behind the wheel of a Lexus on North Road and followed him after he skidded to a stop.

He went the wrong way around a roundabout and reached speeds of 100mph before crashing into a wall in Holmwood Grove.

Clark, of Aldam Street, in the North Road area of Darlington, admitted two charges of dangerous driving and other motoring matters.

He wept in the dock as his barrister, Liam O'Brien, told of his mother's ill-health and how she might die.

Mr O'Brien said: "The defendant is anxious to see, at some point, his mother outside the prison environment."

Clark also admitted driving while disqualified, having no insurance, possessing drugs and resisting a police officer.

Judge Bourne-Arton told him: "The two incidents I've witnessed are, perhaps, the most serious cases of dangerous I have occasion to deal with.

"You are a dangerous individual because you are prepared to risk the life and limb of ordinary decent people going about their daily life."