Lee Hepton jailed for 120mph pursuit on A64 between Malton and York

Lee Christopher Hepton, 38, was twice the legal alcohol limit and had taken cocaine before his high speed journey over Whitwell Hill and across Barton crossroads on the A64 east of York, York Crown Court heard.

Marta Alnaes, prosecuting, said police had first been notified about him as he drove erratically on the Scarborough seafront.

There his passenger Luke Owen Thompson, 23, was hanging out of a window of the silver Volkswagen Golf swearing and threatening other motorists and pedestrians, including a family on foot with a young baby.

At one point Thompson told a woman: “Come on, I will smash your head.”

Defence solicitor Graham Parkin said Hepton was needed at home to help his partner with their heavy family commitments and urged the judge to suspend the prison sentence.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, said: “When the blue lights go on, if the foot goes down, you go down. You put police officers’ lives at risk.

“Only a prison sentence can follow a police chase at 120mph.”

He jailed Hepton, of Leeds and Bradford Road, Bramley, for six months, banned him from the roads for three years and three months and ordered him to take an extended driving test before driving alone again.

Hepton pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, drink driving, cocaine driving and making off without paying.

Dangerous driver Lee Christopher Hepton (Image: North Yorkshire Police)

Thompson, of Littlemoor Gardens, Pudsey, pleaded guilty to a public order offence and making off without paying and was given a 12-month community order with 180 hours’ unpaid work and 10 hours’ unpaid work and must pay £240 prosecution costs. His birthday was the day after the police chase.

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Ms Alnaes said several members of the public alerted police to the pair’s antics on the seafront at 6.20pm on April 16 this year.

An officer in a marked police car signalled Hepton to stop as the pair headed out of Scarborough on the A171 towards Whitby. But the pair sped off and disappeared.

At 7.45pm the same vehicle filled its petrol tank with £96.34 of fuel at a garage on Malton Road, Pickering, and drove off without paying.

Police picked the pair up again as they drove down the A169 and turned west onto the A64, where Hepton accelerated to 120mph.

They punctured the car’s wheels near Flaxton and though Hepton drove on for a short stretch, he came to a halt, and both were arrested.

Mr Parkin, who represented both defendants, said Hepton had panicked when he realised police were behind him on the A64. Thompson accepted his behaviour during his birthday celebrations had been appalling.