A BANNED driver who tried to outrun police and then claimed it was somebody else behind the wheel has been jailed for 12 months.

Lee Teasdale attempted to evade capture after being spotted at a roundabout in Stockton by a patrol officer who knew he was disqualified.

He sped around 30mph residential areas at 50mph and onto nearby Thornaby before he abandoned the vehicle, Teesside Crown Court heard.

Teasdale, 25, was convicted of dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and having no insurance on September 2016 following a trial last month.

The court heard that he has convictions for motoring offences going back to his school days and he has never passed a test, but Alexandra Sutton, mitigating, said he was “a man of increasing maturity2.

Judge Stephen Ashurst said Teasdale had shown “arrogance and aggression” towards a probation officer in an interview after his conviction, and described him as “a cocky individual".

He added: “It has got to be clear that people who put their foot down when the police sirens and blue lights go on run the almost inevitable risk they will be locked up.”

Teasdale, of Mill Terrace, Thorpe Thewles, near Stockton, will be banned from the roads for two-and-a-half years.