A driver who smashed the speed limit during a police chase through Acomb has been banned from the roads for three years.

Rob Galley, prosecuting, said Terri Marie Harper, 29, raced off when police asked her to stop because they wanted to speak to her about a faulty light.

She drove at up to three times the 20 mph speed limit as she tried to outdrive them from Gale Lane to Acomb Green via Cornlands Road, Tedder Road, Salmond Road, Slessor Road, Beagle Ridge Drive, Askham Lane, Ridgeway and Wetherby Road.

The car chase ended when she crashed into a garden wall on The Green and escaped on foot. But she left her mobile phone in the car and the next day handed herself in.

She told officers she had had an alcoholic drink but had believed she had been safe to drive.

In 2009, she was convicted of drink driving and driving without insurance, said Mr Galley at York Crown Court.

Recorder Nicholas Barker said: “The court is deeply suspicious of the circumstances and the decision by you to evade the police…… Had you been doing nothing wrong there would be little or no reason to do so.

“Had you been driving over the prescribed limit (of alcohol) that would have provided you with a motive to evade the police. There is no evidence you had been drinking to excess. However, you have admitted you were on licensed premises.”

He banned her from driving, ordered to take an extended driving test before driving alone again, and gave her a six-month prison sentence suspended for two years on condition she does 180 hours’ unpaid work. She was also fined £800.

Anyone convicted of drink driving for the second time in ten years receives a minimum three-year driving ban. Anyone convicted of dangerous driving receives a minimum 12-month driving ban and must take an extended driving test.

Harper, of Queenswood Grove, Acomb, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.

Her solicitor advocate Neal Kutte said she had panicked when the police tried to pull her over.

“It was a moment of madness,” he said. “She bitterly regrets what she did now.”

York Crown Court heard Harper had suffered from depression and anxiety for some years and had given up her sales manager job following her arrest because she couldn’t cope with the pressure it caused her.

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