A BANNED driver was arrested after he crashed his car the day before he was due to get his licence back.

Ryan Anderson of Hartlea Avenue, High Beaumont Hill, Darlington, had his licence revoked last year for refusing to take a breath test.

But the 27-year-old takeaway manager took to the road in his Volkswagen Golf on Sunday, July 8 - only 24 hours before the ban came to an end.

Anderson crashed the car into a post office van at the corner of North Road and Thompson Street and fled.

Darlington Magistrates' Court heard that his mother convinced him to hand himself in when he told her what had happened. She phoned the police and he was arrested.

Laura Saunders-Jerrom, mitigating, said: "He accepts that he was disqualified and should not have been behind the wheel. He panicked after the accident and ran home.

"His business will suffer if he is disqualified from driving again."

Magistrates banned Anderson from driving for 12 months, and ordered him to pay £508 in fines, costs and compensation.