A "DANGEROUS" man who left a trail of destruction as he drove an eight-ton forklift truck through the streets of York was today jailed for six years.

The honorary Recorder of York, Judge Paul Hoffman, ordered Raymond Wilson to have four years' extra supervision on his release from custody and warned he was likely to prove difficult for prison officers to control.

He had just heard how the 22-year-old led police on a lumbering 30-minute pursuit for several miles through August Bank Holiday traffic last year.

Nigel Wray, prosecuting, said the chase began with Wilson waving to police officers from a forklift truck he had snatched from Dewsbury Terrace, in York city centre.

"What happened afterwards was really driving which left in its wake the destruction of seven vehicles, with a number of people injured", said Mr Wray.

He described how Wilson wrote off a police van in Skeldergate by ramming it with the forks of his vehicle and making it collide with a stationary vehicle.

As other police vehicles took up the pursuit, Wilson drove the wrong way down Fishergate, causing other vehicles to take evasive action, and along Fulford Road to the A19-A64 interchange, where he went completely round one of the roundabouts.

There, said Mr Wray, he crashed into a BMW, which started a concertina effect involving four more vehicles.

He then mounted the central reservation between two slip roads and drove on to the A64 where he removed a 'stinger' trap laid by police to stop him.

But police in a Land Cruiser came up alongside him and managed to force him off the road - despite the fact that the forklift truck had crashed into the police vehicle. Wilson was then arrested.

Wilson, no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to two charges of recklessly endangering lives by causing criminal damage and one of aggravated taking of a vehicle. Fourteen people were injured or endangered by his actions.

The judge, referring to medical reports, said Wilson had a psychopathic disorder and a personality disorder and was dangerous because of his aggressive and irresponsible character.

For Wilson, Nicholas Barker, said that his character problems were not his fault as he had been abused as a child.

"He is a troubled and complicated young man."

Wilson had been deeply affected by a friend's death from an overdose of heroin shortly before the forklift truck incident. He had taken the vehicle by hot-wiring it so he could visit his mother in Liverpool.

Updated: 15:06 Friday, May 02, 2003