TWO petrified men were taken on a joyride around a busy town centre by drunken Andrew Lee - in their own car.

A court heard that the pair were sitting on a wall near their car when they were approached by 27-year-old Lee and two other men.

They were forced to hand over the keys to the car and were ordered into the back seat, said Jacqueline Gibson, prosecuting.

She said: "One of the other men asked them for a cigarette and then told them to stand still as they were getting robbed.

"The owner of the car and his friend were then told to get in the back seat."

Lee then drove around Darlington for some time before stopping to get petrol at a garage on Northgate. It was there the two men got out, Newton Aycliffe magistrates were told.

"Mr Lee said that he was very drunk at the time he committed the offence. He accepts that the victims must have been petrified," she added.

Jane Scott, mitigating, said: "Mr Lee was not the original aggressor, he did not take the keys, he was simply given them.

"Mr Lee was making conversation with the men in the back, asking them where they were from and telling them where he was from.

"His mindset was that it was not an aggressive situation."

Lee, of Mallory Court, Darlington, admitted taking the vehicle without consent on June 11, driving without insurance or a licence and failing to surrender to police bail.

He was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison for taking the car and four weeks, concurrent, for failing to surrender to police bail.

He was also given eight points for driving without insurance but no separate penalty for driving without a licence.