HE came within inches of being burned to death in a fireball after joyriding in his mother's car and ploughing into a lamppost at 60mph.

The flattened lamppost gouged the car's floor, missing a full tank of fuel by a matter of inches.

Teenage joyrider Jamie Robinson and six mates who had been in the car all climbed out unhurt.

Today, the 17-year-old spoke for the first time of his extraordinary escape in the crash near York, as he threw his support behind our Live Now, Drive Later campaign against joyriding.

"I was very, very lucky," said Jamie, of Anthea Drive, Huntington. "If the lamppost had ruptured the fuel tank, the exposed wires could have set the tank on fire. But others might not be so lucky.

"If any of my mates had been killed, I could never have forgiven myself."

His mother, Michaela, spoke of her good fortune that she was not in the position of Lee and Joanne Corner, whose 15-year-old son, Joel, took their car and crashed into a van at high-speed last April, killing himself, his friend and front-seat passenger Daniel Wright and van driver Peter Alexander - a tragic smash which sparked The Press campaign.

"My son still has his life," said Michaela. "If only Joel's and Daniel's mums could be in this situation now with them. I feel I am so lucky to have this chance. They were all very lucky to walk away with their lives."

Jamie, a former Huntington School pupil who is now an apprentice bricklayer, said he took his mother's company car, a Vauxhall Astra, one Sunday evening last October, while she was out at a club. He had only had three driving lessons.

"It was a stupid thing to do," he said. "Boys do stupid things like that until they grow up. I think I was jealous because my mates were generally older than me and could drive."

He said he picked up six friends - four in the back and two in the front - and drove up to McDonalds at Clifton Moor, before heading along the outer ring road and back into New Earswick.

A police car then spotted him and set off in pursuit, and Jamie put his foot down. "I took one bend OK, but at the second, I turned the steering wheel but nothing happened and I went straight into a lamppost. It was flattened and I drove straight over it.

"There was a hole in the floor well in front of the back seat caused by the post. It missed the tank - which was full of fuel - by inches. The car was written-off."

His friends fled the scene, but Jamie stayed by the car as the policeman arrived and took him to York police station. "I just felt scared and shocked. I couldn't believe what I had done."

He feared being taken to court, but was eventually given a final warning, with a strict proviso that he behave himself. "I think they thought I had learned my lesson. I have done. This has helped me grow up a lot."

He revealed that after giving up his driving lessons for some months, he resumed them recently and passed his driving test at the first attempt on Wednesday.

He said he would be happy to recount his experiences on a hard-hitting film which The Press plans to make and show to teenagers at schools in the York area in a bid to deter them from joyriding.

Michaela said although she liked to think Jamie had been shocked so badly that he would never attempt it again, she had never left her keys around to give him the temptation.

"Everywhere I go, my car keys come with me.

"We recently went away for a long weekend, leaving my son at home, and my car keys came abroad with me."