A MOTORCYCLIST who put lives at risk as he tried to escape police in a chase around York - at times going twice the speed limit - has been jailed.

Drug driver Elliott Jackson, 25, hit the accelerator and rode in and around York - reaching 60mph in a 30mph zone - during the police pursuit, York Crown Court heard.

Katie Spence, prosecuting, said during the chase he rode on the wrong side of the road, mounted a central reservation, forced oncoming traffic to swerve out the way, put out his lights so that it was difficult to see him in the dark and finally lost control at a roundabout on the York Outer Ring Road.

It took three police cars to bring him to a stop and catch him and his pillion passenger.

A drugs test found traces of cannabis and cocaine in his system and cannabis in his pocket.

Police had initially wanted to talk to him because his passenger wasn’t wearing a helmet in Clifton.

His solicitor Kevin Blount said he had panicked when the police initially wanted him to stop and he had never had a chance of outdistancing the police cars because his motorcycle wasn’t powerful enough.

“Vehicles are lethal weapons,” the Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, told Jackson. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: when the blue lights go on and your foot goes down, you go down.

“This is too serious to suspend and only an immediate prison sentence is appropriate for this kind of deliberate risk taking with other people’s lives.”

Jackson, of Magnolia Grove, New Earswick, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, drug driving, driving without insurance, driving without a licence and possession of cannabis.

He was jailed for six months and banned from driving for 15 months. He must pass an extended driving test before he can drive without supervision again.

Ms Spence said police signalled to Jackson to pull over after dark on April 17. He ignored the signal and rode onto Shipton Road. The police pursued him onto the York Outer Ring Road, and into Acomb on the B1224 Wetherby Road. When he slowed down to go round a sharp corner back out towards the ring road, his passenger jumped off. Police split their forces and the passenger was chased and detained while the pursuit continued.

Jackson was eventually boxed in by police cars and forced to stop.

Mr Blount said at the time of the offence Jackson was out of work and had broken up with his girlfriend. He had got involved in a group of people who were using drugs. He had started taking cannabis occasionally and the night before he was arrested, he had been to a party where he had been offered and taken cocaine.

The couple were now back together and she was expecting their child.

He had also had a permanent job working as a chef in a York restaurant, the court heard.