THREE men spent time in police cells after their friend blamed them for stealing then crashing his car, a court heard.

Daniel Clayton Sykes, 23, denied he was responsible for crashing his vehicle in Cawood and falsely told police his car keys had been stolen, David Garnett said.

Officers investigating the crash arrested three people and held them in police cells for an average of 13-and-a-half hours each before releasing them.

Later the same day, Sykes walked into a police station and confessed that he had been the driver who crashed the car shortly after midnight on November 20.

Sykes, of Chestnut Road, Cawood, pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice and careless driving.

He was given a community order with 150 hours’ unpaid work, fined £400 plus a £15 national victim surcharge and given six penalty points.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, said Sykes’ friends “appeared to have forgiven” him.

He told Sykes: “I hope in your case in not sentencing you to custody I am taking the right decision. I am trusting my judgement you are not the sort of person who presents a high risk of offending in the future.”

Mr Garnett told York Crown Court that Cawood residents alerted police after they heard a car speeding too fast through the village in the early hours, clipping the kerb and crashing.

After trying and failing to restart the car, which had a collapsed wheel, three people fled the scene.

Sykes later told police: “I saw my mates run off, I ran off. I just panicked. I can’t understand what I was thinking.”

For Sykes, Chris Smith said his client panicked when police called on him early on November 20.

But his conscience troubled him throughout the day until he gave himself up.

He was a hard-working engineer who had made a error of judgement when driving.

The defence barrister handed in letters from two of the men wrongly arrested that urged the judge not to jail Sykes.