"MADNESS" and "unbelievable" were the opinions of a judge on Nathan Mark Gilchrist's 120mph drive along the York outer ring road.

Austin Newman, prosecuting, said the 26-year-old engineer left a police car trailing in his wake as he smashed the speed limit on the A1237.

The high-speed night-time chase ended when Gilchrist's car crashed at the bottom of the slope up to the A1237/A64 interchange, near Copmanthorpe. Neither Gilchrist nor his passenger was injured.

"This was madness," said Judge Geoffrey Marson QC.

"Even at 4am in the morning, when I daresay there was very little traffic about, how you did not manage to kill yourself or your passenger is beyond belief.

"Three miles must have taken you about a minute and a half. It is just unbelievable that someone could drive in that way."

Gilchrist, of Hanover Street East, off Leeman Road, York, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving. He was ordered to do 200 hours' unpaid work and pay £250 court costs. He was also banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to take an extended driving retest.

Mr Newman said, at York Crown Court, that two police officers were driving towards the city centre along Boroughbridge Road when Gilchrist passed them going the other way at high speed.

They turned round and pursued him. Even though the police car was doing 120mph it could not catch him. By the Wetherby Road roundabout, the police car had put on its blue light, but Gilchrist disappeared out of sight over a blind crest. As the police came over the crest, they saw he had lost control.

Christopher Batty, for Gilchrist, said he was a sole trading engineer with "huge" debts who was about to file for bankruptcy. He and his girlfriend had a 14-month child and he had seen his GP about depression.

Updated: 09:18 Tuesday, April 18, 2006