A BANNED driver who threatened a man with a wheel brace and drove at twice the speed limit in a built-up area has been jailed for 12 months.

Adam Luke Reynard, 25, was on parole from a four-year sentence for drug trafficking offences involving heroin and cocaine when he flouted a driving ban, York Crown Court heard.

Christopher Cope, prosecuting, said when police spotted him, he sped off and drove at double the 30 mph speed limit on roads in Burnholme and Tang Hall. The chase ended when he lost control and crashed into a tree.

In a separate incident a month later on June 3 last year, he took a wheel brace out of a car and waved and pointed it at others in a fracas on Alcuin Avenue, Tang Hall.

Reynard, of Plumer Avenue, Tang Hall, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified and without insurance, possessing cannabis and having an offensive weapon in public. He has previous motoring convictions, including dangerous driving.

He was jailed for 12 months, to start when he finishes serving the rest of the four-year sentence in December. He was also banned from driving for three years and three months and ordered to take an extended driving test.

His barrister John Batchelor said the dangerous driving had occurred because he had panicked when he saw the police officers, knowing he was banned and had cannabis on him. The dangerous driving had been at night when there were few people about.

He had been so badly injured in the crash, he had spent three weeks in hospital as a result and needed a spinal brace on his release.

In June, he had been on his way with others to a pub when they had become involved in an argument with a group of four men which wasn’t of his making. He had used the wheel brace to “fend off trouble”.