Danger driver jumps six red lights on 100mph police chase through Hartlepool with sparks coming from his front wheel

Bailey Spurs, 18, from Hartlepool, who was finally cornered in Hartlepool town centre in the early hours, sped off because he was not insured to drive the Seat Ibiza car.

The crew of an unmarked police car spotted him driving it with fog lights illuminated on the A19 at 12.30am on December 8.

Prosecutor Jenny Haigh told Teesside Crown Court that they switched on the blue lights of their BMW saloon car but he sped off leaving up a slip road to the A689 and heading towards Hartlepool.

Ms Haigh said the vehicle reached 100mph on the A689 dual carriageway and the police car following Spurs was clocked at 104mph.

He drove through six sets of traffic lights on red, and the chase was joined by other police vehicles which used a Stinger device to shred his tyres.

Spurs drove through 30mph areas of Hartlepool at 60mph with sparks coming from the front wheel as he raced through more red lights.

Finally in Lothian Road when the car was still moving he jumped out with two other passengers leaving a girl on the back seat.

They ran into a dead end with a high fence and he was arrested.

Spurs said that he had just bought the Seat and he did not have insurance. He accepted that his driving was dangerous and that there were other people in the car

Miss Haigh said that Spurs had been stopped by police on September 13 for driving a Seat Punto at speed and striking a Mini at a junction.

Judge Peter Armstrong commented: ”Panic seems to set in when people are caught driving without insurance.

”How anybody can think they can outrun the police driving a BMW defeats me.”

Andrew McGloin, defending, said that Spurs had mental health issues but he had a supportive family who were in the court public gallery.

He said that Spurs had been offered a job to start on April 1.

Judge Armstrong told him that it was only good fortune that nobody had been injured, or he would have been sentenced to immediate custody.

Spurs, of Viola Close, Hartlepool, was sentenced to eight months youth custody suspended for two years, with 100 hours unpaid work, £200 costs, £140 statutory surcharge, and disqualified for 12 months and until he passes an extended driving test.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving with no insurance.