A DRUG driver who fled from officers at 137 mph on rural roads west and north of York before crashing into a police car has been jailed.

Delivery worker William Geoffrey Mann, 22, had used cocaine before the pursuit which began when he failed to stop for police in Kirk Deighton near Wetherby.

Police clocked him driving his Mercedes at 137mph and racing at three times the 30 mph speed limit through villages.

He fled through Hunsingore, Cattal, Whixley, Aldborough, Boroughbridge and Bishop Monkton before police closed in in Burton Leonard and had stingers ready to deploy in several places.

The pursuit ended when he crashed into an unmarked police car.

Mann, of Wetherby, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, drug driving and failure to stop and was jailed for eight months at York Crown Court.

He was banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to take an extended driving test before driving unsupervised again.

Sergeant Julian Pearson, of North Yorkshire Police roads policing group, who took part in the pursuit and led the investigation, said: “Mann made a conscious decision to fail to stop for the police, his judgement clouded by his recent drug usage. This combined with dangerous high speed driving is a lethal combination.

“This was a prolonged, determined and dangerous attempt to evade capture for drug driving, putting himself, his passengers, other road users and the police at serious risk.”

“When a vehicle is requested to stop and the driver refuses, the police have no idea why. It could be for a multitude of reasons and in Mann’s case it was for drug driving. Had he stopped then he would have been dealt for that offence and most likely not in prison as he is today.

“We make absolutely no apologies for catching drivers like Mann – we regularly see the carnage and heartbreak they cause innocent people. So I’m glad the courts have taken another dangerous driver off our roads and have protected our communities.”