A drink-driver who had no licence has been jailed after fleeing police at 130mph on a North Yorkshire road.

Andrew Buckley, 37, has repeatedly failed the driving theory test because he has dyslexia, has never held a driving licence and was over the drink-drive limit, York Crown Court heard.

He was heading to Doncaster from Scotland via the A1(M) when North Yorkshire Police spotted him at the A61/A1(M) junction near Ripon at 5.25 am at January 12.

Beatrice Allsop, prosecuting, said he was suspected of taking a vehicle without consent and drink driving.

But instead of obeying the police’s order to stop, he sped up to 130mph and continued at that speed until the A64/A1(M) Bramham junction, only slowing when his path was impeded by other vehicles.

“The defendant was swerving between lanes two and three and put pressure on motorists ahead to move over, travelling very close to them, before accelerating back to 130mph,” said Ms Allsop.

Road conditions changed from dry to wet.

A second officer joined the chase at Junction 45, the Boston Spa turn-off, and at the Bramham junction, Buckley slowed down and brought the Audi A3 he was driving to a halt on the hard shoulder.

Police, one of them holding a taser,  arrested him at 5.40am.

He told them he had a knife and a baton in the driver’s seat pocket. A breath test gave a reading of 58 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

He told police people had threatened him in Scotland, he had got in the car and when the police signalled him he had been concentrating on getting home.

He had pulled over when he realised he wasn’t going to get away from the police.

“Driving in this way down the main road of this county for over 13 minutes at these speeds for this distance can only be punished by immediate custody,” said Judge Simon Hickey.

Buckley, of Woodside Road, Doncaster, was jailed for 10 months, banned from driving for 17 months and must take an extended driving test before driving alone again.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving without insurance and without a licence, drink driving, possessing an offensive weapon and having a knife in public.

Defence barrister Stephen Littlewood said Buckley had never intended to use the weapons and had “no reasonable excuse” for their presence in the car.

At the time, he had been separated from his long-time partner and his Scottish relationship was collapsing. It was also the second anniversary of his mother’s death and he had mental health issues.

Everything had piled up and he had behaved out of character. He was remorseful for his actions and had not driven since his arrest.

Shortly after his arrest he had made a “very serious” suicide attempt. He had since started sessions with an alcohol rehabilitation organisation and he and his long-term partner were back together again.