A SKIPTON motorist who had taken cannabis led police on a “protracted” chase in a defective van - putting the lives of road users and pedestrians at risk, a court heard.

Thomas Hope Harrison, who has no previous motoring convictions, was at the wheel of a Mercedes Sprinter which a police traffic vehicle signalled to pull over on the A688, near Spennymoor, County Durham, shortly before 4.20pm on Thursday May 12.

Durham Crown Court heard that the van came to a halt at the side of the road, but when an officer got out to go to speak to the driver, Thompson suddenly pulled away, starting what became a nine-minute pursuit.

Lewis Kerr, prosecuting, said it took in both country and residential roads in the Bishop Auckland and West Auckland areas, and involved several dangerous pulling out manoeuvres at junctions and roundabouts.

It was only when the van entered an enterprise park, which was, effectively, a dead end, off Maude Terrace, St Helen Auckland, that the van finally slowed.

Thompson was arrested as he got out in a vehicle hire yard, but the van carried on rolling due to a faulty handbrake.

Mr Kerr said during two police interviews, Thompson made ‘no comment’ replies.

But, when the 21-year-old landscape gardener, of Back Bridge Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire, came before the court for yesterday’s plea hearing, he admitted charges of dangerous driving, no insurance, and driving under the influence of cannabis.

The court heard he was visiting relatives in County Durham at the time, as his parents were away from home, and there was an element of “bravado” about his actions to “impress” those with whom he was staying.

Anne-marie Hutton, for Harrison, said he was not even a heavy cannabis user, but did take some of the drug that day and so, “panicked” when the police vehicle attempted to pull him over.

She told the court it was out of character as he has no motoring convictions, adding: “He knows how foolish he has been and how serious this could have been.”

Describing it as, “a protracted piece of dangerous driving”, after being given the chance to stop, Judge Simon Hickey imposed a ten-month prison sentence and banned him from driving for two-year-and-five months.