A TEENAGER driving a stolen van, who led four police cars on a 95mph videoed chase, was locked up yesterday for 18 months.

The judge who saw the replay of the pursuit, across North Yorkshire and County Durham, said it was amazing no one had been injured.

Steven Pearce, 18, was in breach of court orders for taking vehicles and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders when he tried to run police off the road with a Ford Transit van.

Police took up the chase on the A1 heading north to Scotch Corner. It turned off at Barton towards Piercebridge, said Robin Turton, prosecuting. A patrol car from the Durham force took up the pursuit and the North Yorkshire car, with its fixed camera, showed the attempts by three police cars to halt it.

Teesside Crown Court was told it entered a 40mph area at 95mph, then Pearce lost control and hit two bollards before crashing into the wall of a house in West Auckland. The van was badly damaged, and Pearce was arrested.

Judge Les Spittle told him: "It is quite amazing to me that either no police officer or no other vehicle was involved in what could have been a quite dangerous collision."

Pearce of Farm Close, Bishop Auckland, was recalled for 68 days custody followed by 18 months in a young offenders' institution, disqualified for three years and ordered to pass an extended driving test before driving again.

He admitted aggravated vehicle taking from West Witton, dangerous driving and driving without insurance on May 26.