A young man’s bid to impress his girlfriend resulted in a smashed car - and cost him his job and his freedom.

Tyler Ruston, 22, drove without lights in the dark and through red traffic lights, said Kelly Clarke, prosecuting at York Crown Court.

He crashed the new car into a parked vehicle as he fled from police. But they caught up with him and he was arrested.

At the time Ruston was serving a driving ban and a community order for aggravated taking of a Ford Transit without consent (TWOC) in Weston-super-Mare last year and was on parole from a prison sentence for aggravated burglary.

“You must have known doing this whilst you were on (prison) licence, on a community order and only having been banned three months earlier, you were effectively guaranteeing you were going back into custody,” Judge Stephen Ashurst told him.

Defence barrister Nick Peacock said Ruston had borrowed a friend’s car and wanted to impress his girlfriend.

He had been working as a bricklayer, but as he had been in custody since his arrest, he had now lost that employment.

“It’s a real shame - it is the first job he has had for many, many years,” said Mr Peacock.

Ruston, of Lady Edith’s Drive, Scarborough, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving without insurance and driving whilst disqualified.  

He was jailed for 16 months, banned from driving for 32 months and ordered to take an extended driving test before driving alone again. The community order was revoked.

York Crown Court heard that after his arrest, Ruston was recalled to prison to continue serving the burglary sentence and his prison licence revoked. He will be behind bars until 2026.

Ms Clarke said a police officer spotted Ruston driving without lights and through red traffic lights through Scarborough around 3am on October 12.  The officer tried to stop Ruston without success.

As the police officer followed, Ruston crashed into a parked car, damaging its front wing and nearside rear end. He made off, but was tracked by CCTV and police caught up with him.

On July 8, he had been banned from driving for 28 months for the aggravated TWOC in Somerset, which another vehicle had been damaged.

Ruston has 43 previous convictions, starting when he was a teenager.

Mr Peacock said while serving his last prison sentence, Ruston had taken a brick-laying qualification and that had enabled him to get the bricklayer’s job for six months.

“Normally when not committing offences, he is a polite, very nice young man,” said the defence barrister.

When Ruston is next released from prison, he wanted to go into the Army, but his long list of previous convictions could be an obstacle to that, said Mr Peacock.