A MAN’s mercy dash to help a friend whose house was on fire landed him with a nine month jail sentence.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Thomas Cormack received a phone call in the middle of the night asking if he could pick up the friend and his family and without thinking grabbed his mother’s car keys, jumped in her vehicle and drove off.

Police later charged him with taking without consent and driving without a licence and insurance.

Matters were made worse for the 25-year-old as the offences meant he breached a suspended jail sentence he had been given in June for the production of cannabis with an estimated street value of £27,000.

Jim Withyman, for Cormack, who admitted the offences, said he had been very foolish and made mistakes.

He said Cormack was a “bright young man” who had garnered 11 GSCEs when at school. He said: “He is on the cusp of making some changes in his life and asks to be given a final chance.”

However Judge Michael Taylor said he had been little choice but to jail Cormack, of Moorhen Road, Hartlepool, who had also breached previous community-based orders he had been given.

He was jailed for nine months in total and disqualified from driving for two years.