A TEENAGER'S appalling driving record brought him a second spell behind bars in two days yesterday.

Derek Ainslie, 18, was sent to a young offenders' institution for three months by Harrogate magistrates after admitting to dangerous driving, driving while banned, being in breach of a community punishment order imposed for being in charge of a car over the alcohol limit, breaching a probation order for taking a car without consent, two counts of not being insured and others of not having a licence or test certificate.

Ainslie, of Bar Place, Harrogate, was told by court chairman Ivan Lester his offences were not regarded as a "tidying up exercise" - as had been suggested by his solicitor Granville Rooley - after York Crown Court had sentenced him to 30 months in custody on Monday for grievous bodily harm, burglary, receiving and defying a driving ban.

Mr Lester said: "You have an appalling driving record commencing at a very early age. The public must be protected from people like you and there is no question in our minds that they have been at risk through your behaviour.

Ainslie, who was banned from driving for a year and ordered to take an extended driving test afterwards, was said by Michael Hammond, prosecuting, to have narrowly avoided a smash while driving the wrong way in a one-way street after ignoring a police patrol car's sirens and flashing blue lights.

Witnesses had put Ainslie's speed in the Otley Road, Queen Parade, Cold Bath Road and Valley Drive area of Harrogate at up to 50mph. He had then abandoned his car in Duchy Avenue and run off.