Leeds drink driver jailed over police chase

Gordon Vickers put other road users in danger during the pursuit along the A1(M) and M1 motorways on February 18 this year.

Leeds Crown Court heard officers began to watch two men who were behaving suspiciously outside at a garage premises in York around 9.10pm.

A car being driven by Vickers then came to pick the two men up and the officers indicated for the vehicle to stop.

Vickers, 32, pulled over to let one of the men out but then sped off along the A1(M).

At one stage during the pursuit he reached 110mph.

He then swerved across two lanes to join the M1 and came off the motorway at junction 47 before stopping on the hard shoulder.

Vickers spoke to officers but he refused to give them his details. His fingerprints were taken at the roadside and it was discovered that he was subject to a driving ban.

Vickers, of Colenso Grove, Holbeck, Leeds, then failed a roadside breath test.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, drink driving and driving while disqualified.

Vickers has 21 previous convictions, many for driving offences.

Keith Whitehouse, mitigating, said the offences happened at a time when he was in a “downward spiral” of drink and drugs after he had lost his brother.

He added: “He is realistic about the prospects of an inevitable custodial sentence.”

Jailing Vickers, Recorder Richard Woolfall said: “It was a quite deliberate ignoring of the rules of the road and a complete disregard of the danger being caused to others.”