A DRINK driver who drove down narrow country lanes at speeds reaching 80 mph has been jailed and banned from the roads for five-and-a-half years.

Joshua Richardson, 24, had already served one driving ban for drink driving when he left a pub near Wold Newton and got behind the wheel.

Rob Galley, prosecuting, said as he tried to flee police, he drove on the wrong side of the road, went the wrong way round a roundabout on a main road to turn into a narrow land and went through a village with parked cars on either side of the road at high speed.

The chase ended with his crashing into a farm wall.

A breath test showed he was one and a half times the drink drive limit.

Recorder Andrew Stubbs QC told him he should have taken the previous conviction as a warning not to drink and drive. “You are fortunate indeed to be walking down the stairs (to the court cells). There could have been friends and family following behind your hearse,”he said.

He jailed the 24-year-old fisherman for 12 months, banned him from driving for five and a half years and ordered him to retake his driving test.

Richardson, of South Crescent, Filey, pleaded guilty to drink driving, dangerous driving on roads near his home, failure to stop and skipping bail.

For him, Taryn Turner said he had fled the police because he had been involved in an argument in a pub before getting into the car, which had been written off. He was a hard worker.

She handed in references on his behalf.