A DRUG courier has been jailed for a 150mph 40-mile police chase through roadworks and heavy traffic along the A1M in North Yorkshire.

Only a miracle prevented banned and uninsured Thomas Birkbeck from killing anyone, York Crown Court heard.

York Press:

He had a three-year-old child in the back without a seat belt on as he crashed into five cars, weaved between lanes, undertook on the hard shoulder and hit the central barrier, said Frances Pencheon, prosecuting. Wreckage flew in the wake of his Audi A4 and hit a pursing police car. He also had enough cannabis to fetch £4,000 to £5,000 in street deals with him.

He completed the 40-mile distance from Scotch Corner to the Boston Spa turnoff in 20 minutes.

One of the police officers who finally boxed him in on a slip road at the A659 Boston Spa junction, Sgt Julian Pearson, said after the hearing: "I then looked into the back and saw a hysterical three-year-old. It was chilling, upsetting and... just the sheer thought that had that vehicle crashed that child would have died.

"And, could I have lived with myself knowing that?"

Jailing Birkbeck for two years and eight months, Judge Deborah Sherwin said: "It is nothing short of miraculous you didn't lose control of the vehicle, you didn't kill yourself, you didn't kill your passengers and it is miraculous the small child in the car wasn't killed."

She added that Birkbeck's driving had put every other road user in danger.

She banned Birkbeck, 31, of Dinnington near Sheffield, from driving for four years and eight months and ordered him to take an extended driving test before driving alone again. Birkbeck admitted dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified, driving without insurance and possession of cannabis with intent to supply it. His actions breached a seven-month prison sentence suspended at Truro Crown Court for driving without insurance or a licence, possessing criminal property and possession of cannabis.

His solicitor advocate Keith Whitehouse said he had panicked when police tried to pull him up just south of the Scotch Corner A66 / A1 interchange. He had stopped when he ran out of petrol on the slip road and was very remorseful for his actions.

Miss Pencheon said police initially asked Birkbeck to pull over because he was driving a car insured to a woman driver.

In a police video shown to the court, Birkbeck, who was heading north, used the A66/A1 interchange roundabout to get onto the A1 southbound, smashed through road cones and weaved back and forth between the hard shoulder, two lanes busy with traffic and the central reservation.

Cars had to swerve out of his way as he drove at up to 130 mph through miles of roadworks with a speed limit of 50 mph.

At one point he left the A1M and went through a red light on a junction roundabout before returning to the A1M southbound. Once through the roadworks, he ignored repeated signs urging motorists to slow to 30mph and topped 150 mph before police boxed him in on the A659 sliproad.

Mr Whitehouse said Birkbeck had been delivering the cannabis for others and had almost arrived at his destination when police signalled for him to pull over.