AN unlicensed young motorist twice got behind the wheel of a car while awaiting court proceedings for an incident of dangerous and drug driving.

Andrew Paul Garthwaite’s first brush with a police motor patrol came when an officer suspected him of driving a VW Polo without insurance, westbound on the A693 at Oxhill, Stanley, at 2.10pm on September 25, last year.

Durham Crown Court was told the officer began pursuing the Polo, which accelerated to 70-miles per hour on 30-limit stretches of road in a residential area.

A police motorcyclist joined the chase, illuminating flashing blue lights and activating a siren, but Garthwaite made no attempt to stop.

He went down a single carriageway on Kyo Lane, forcing two cars to swerve out of the way on to a grass verge.

Peter Sabiston, prosecuting, said Garthwaite travelled at 50-mph on 30-limit roads through New Kyo, before braking sharply to make a right turn into a housing estate, careering over speed bumps, at 45-mph, pulling out in front of another vehicle, causing it to brake sharply.

The Polo was brought to a halt near a convenience store in Catchgate and Garthwaite ran into the residential estate, which was searched.

Mr Sabiston said Garthwaite was found on scrub land, not far from where he was living at the time, in Harperley Gardens, having changed his clothing.

He was arrested and found to only have a provisional driving licence. He also gave a positive test for excess component of cannabis in his blood supply.

His home was searched and his original clothing was found, while it emerged the Polo was going for scrap.

Mr Sabiston said in the early hours of the morning on February 23, when he was to appear at magistrates’ court over that incident, he crashed into a wall near a Methodist church in The Grove, Consett, in a Renault Clio, and required hospital treatment.

While on bail he and serving an interim driving disqualification he was also involved in a short police chase in Seaham, which ended when he drove into a dead end, on May 2.

He admitted having bought the car a short time beforehand, but he refused to give a sample of saliva for testing.

Garthwaite, 24, now of Ryton Crescent, Seaham, admitted dangerous driving, driving with excess drugs in his system, failing to stop after an accident, driving while disqualified, two counts of failing to provide a specimen, and three each of no insurance and no full licence.

Lewis Kerr, mitigating, said the defendant has no previous driving matters on his record and is keen to put this sort of offending behind him.

“Clearly, he does not think before he acts.

“Although the dangerous driving was over a relatively short distance, he clearly put other road users at risk, but, fortunately, no-one was injured.”

Deputy Circuit Judge Paul Worsley QC told Garthwaite it was his, “day of reckoning”, and passed a 25-month prison sentence, with a four-year driving ban.