A DRINK-driver who raced a stolen car up and down a residential street at midnight has been jailed.

Jake Johnson, 20, tried to escape when police arrived and pursued him, but drove into a ditch before crashing into a tree, said Matthew Collins, prosecuting at York Crown Court.

In the Volvo, which had been taken in a burglary two days earlier, were two bottles of Sambucco Johnson had stolen from Tesco’s Clifton Moor store minutes earlier - the second time in a week he had targeted the store.

He also had cannabis on him.

Johnson, of Crombie Avenue, Clifton, already had 43 convictions in five years before he pleaded guilty to aggravated car snatching, driving while disqualified, no insurance, two charges of theft and one charge of possessing cannabis.

Judge Rodney Jameson QC told him: “You were significantly under the influence of alcohol at the time. You have a significant criminal history.”

He jailed Johnson for 15 months, disqualified him for a further three years and ordered that he take an extended driving test. He also warned him he will be supervised by the probation service for 12 months after his release.

Johnson was not charged with drinkdriving despite returning a reading of 59 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

His solicitor Kevin Blount said the case had come to court so quickly, police were possibly still awaiting the results of a blood test taken in hospital after the police chase before charging him with drink-driving.

Johnson was not the person who stole the Volvo in a burglary on January 22 but accepted he had been driving it just after midnight on January 24.

He had believed the driving ban he got in July 2012 for dangerous driving had finished, but he had not taken any steps to get a licence. The court also heard that he offended when he had been drinking.

Johnson started his criminal career as a 15-year-old and has previously served custodial sentences He received two driving bans in 2012, one for 12 months for aggravated car snatching and the three-year one in July 2012, when he was also ordered to take an extended driving test.