A BANNED teenager who drove along a busy city street with a policeman hanging out of his car has been locked up for six months.

Robert Galley, prosecuting, told York Youth Court that PC Neville King was trying to arrest the 17-year-old youth for driving while disqualified in May this year.

Craig Robertson, said the youth, who cannot be named for legal reasons, panicked when accosted by the policeman and drove off because he feared what might happen to him.

Senior justice Gurdeep Chadha said the May incident was a "mirror repeat" of an incident last autumn involving the youth, and showed a "reckless disregard for authority and the safety of the officer and of the observers, including a baby".

She and her colleagues gave the youth a six-month detention and training order, and banned him from driving for three years.

The teenager from central York, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and without insurance and assaulting a policeman with intent to evade arrest.

On November 25, he had been given a nine-month supervision order, including a three-month curfew, and banned for 12 months after admitting driving while disqualified, not having insurance and obstructing a police officer.

Mr Galley, quoting onlookers including a mother with a baby, said that on May 18, the youth's car overtook a line of vehicles waiting at traffic lights in East Parade, Heworth. At the lights, PC King, who was on foot, spoke to the driver. The car made a loud "squealing" noise and drove off for about 50 yards along Heworth Road, with the officer still attached to the car with its door open.

Mr Robertson said the youth had been in pain at the time as a result of injuries sustained in a road accident two years earlier. He was a hard-working teenager who was not inherently criminal.

Updated: 10:38 Friday, September 03, 2004