A NORTH Yorkshire mechanic was jailed for nine months after an 80mph car chase that put a boy's life at risk and ended with him ramming a police vehicle.

David Bradshaw, prosecuting at York Crown Court, said that Simon Robert Richard Maving, 31, drove off at speed when police spotted him driving a van with an illegal car tax disc on the A64, near Seamer, heading towards Scarborough.

During the cross-country chase he touched 80mph, narrowly missed a boy cyclist while doing 60mph through Seamer and damaged two police cars when they cornered him near East Ayton.

Motor mechanic Maving, formerly of Cropton, near Pickering, and now of West End, Cayton, near Scarborough, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and fraudulent use of a car tax disc.

He was jailed for nine months and banned from driving for 12 months.

His barrister, Geraldine Kelly, said he panicked when he saw police because he knew the tax disc on his van belonged to a different car. He had been very tired after a night up with his sick wife, had not intended to injure anyone and had not deliberately rammed the police car.

Updated: 12:07 Saturday, December 14, 2002