A 20-year-old Steeton man has been locked up for 12 months after leading the police on a dangerous car chase round Skipton town centre on a Saturday afternoon.

Jamie Halford, a labourer, of Station Road, hit a parked car, forced a pedestrian to jump clear on a crossing and pinned a retired woman against a bridge wall as he sped around the centre of town in a red Toyota he should not have been driving.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, failing to stop and having no driving licence or insurance.

Prosecutor Camille Morland told Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday that Halford was spotted illegally at the wheel on Carleton Road by the police on March 3.

He skidded at junctions, jumped a red light and drove across a traffic island while speeding along Sackville Street, Craven Street and Keighley Road with the car stereo on full blast.

He and his passenger leapt out of the car on Carleton Road and it rolled on to the pavement, pinning a retired woman pedestrian against the wall of a bridge.

Miss Morland said the woman feared for her life when she saw the car coming at her. Halford fled but was arrested the next day.

He was in breach of a crown court community order for a drugs offence committed in Gargrave Road, Skipton, in August last year.

In mitigation, the court was told that Halford was in full-time work.

He panicked when he saw the police and recalled little of the pursuit.

He did not mean to get so close to the woman he pinned to the wall.

Judge Christopher Batty said: “He was probably three sheets to the wind which is why he cannot remember, and why he was driving so badly.”

He told Halford he could have seriously injured, or killed, the woman.

Halford was sentenced to nine months in a young offender institution for dangerous driving and an extra three months for breaching the crown court community order.

He was banned from driving for two years and his licence was endorsed.

He was led off in handcuffs to begin his sentence.