A DRUG supplier's 100mph-plus bid to escape arrest has ended with a three and a half year prison sentence.

Ryan Cross hurtled through villages at more than twice the speed limit as he raced from Wetherby to York along the B1224 with a police car behind him, York Crown Court heard.

He drove at more than 100 mph between the A1 and Bickerton, went through Long Marston's 40 mph speed limit at 90 mph and topped 100 mph again between Long Marston and Rufforth, said Mark McKone, prosecuting.

Reaching the York outer ring road, he overtook a line of traffic, driving on the wrong side of the road, and weaved through Woodthorpe and Foxwood, sometimes hitting 60 mph in 30 mph areas.

The pursuit ended when he hit a lamp-post, fell out of his mother's BMW and tried in vain to run off.

During the chase, he threw Ecstasy worth more than £2,200 in street deals out of the car window, but still had 68.5 tablets on him when he was arrested.

Altogether the Class A drug was worth nearly £2,400. Cross also had £695 in cash on him, which was confiscated by the court.

He was on parole having been released partway through a sentence of just under seven years for a gang attack on a man that left the victim with a fractured cheekbone and other violence.

Jailing him for three and a half years, Judge Guy Kearl QC said he could have killed someone by his "extensive piece of dangerous driving."

Cross had completed the Wetherby to York section of the chase in 15 minutes, instead of the half an hour normally taken by drivers.

Cross, 24, of Alness Drive, Woodthorpe, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and possessing Ecstasy with intent to supply it to others. In addition to the jail sentence, he was banned from driving for two years and ordered to retake his driving test.

His barrister Holly Betke said he had had a series of difficulties in his private life which he dealt with by taking drugs instead of seeking help from probation officers and others who were helping him after his release from prison.

"These appear to have been offences motivated by personal trauma rather than any anti-social behaviour," she said.

He had been on his way home with his girlfriend after a night out when he realised the police were interested in him, so he tried to speed away from them because of the drugs in the car. He had no previous driving or drug offences.

Mr McKone said the police's attention had been attracted by the speed at which Cross was driving the BMW northward along the A1 near Wetherby services. at 8.10pm on Saturday November 1, 2014 at 8.10pm in drizzly conditions.

He overtook cars when vehicles were coming the other way, raced through Bilton and its 40 mph speed limit at 70 mph plus.

Vehicles coming the other way had to slow down, and he went twice round the A1237 junction with the B1224.