A TEENAGER in a flatbed van led police on a 13 mile high-speed chase before crashing into the garden wall of a house.

At various points during the chase, which took place in the early hours of yesterday morning, the van evaded a 'Stinger' device, drove without its lights on and drove down the wrong side of the road.

The 18-year-old is now in police custody following the incident which took place in roads around South Durham and Darlington.

Officers spotted the Ford Transit truck being driven in a suspicious manner at about 3am in Winston Road, Staindrop, County Durham.

When they went to stop the vehicle it turned off its lights and accelerated away.

The van then slowed down before re-illuminating its lights and set off towards the A67, where it turned east and headed towards Darlington.

Officers followed the van at a safe distance.

Road policing officers joined the pursuit and narrowly missed bringing the vehicle to a stop in Coniscliffe Road, Darlington, using a Stinger device, which tried to deflate the van's tyres.

The truck continued along the entire length of Carmel Road where at times it drove onto the wrong carriageway, around centre traffic islands.

At one point it headed towards a dog section vehicle heading in the opposite direction.

After accelerating once again, the driver lost control of the truck at the roundabout with Staindrop Road, where it went straight over and collided heavily with the brick wall and metal fencing of a property in the street.

The pursuit had lasted 15 minutes from start to finish.

The driver ran from the scene and a short time later the Cleveland police helicopter located a heat source in a garden nearby.

The crew directed officers on the ground who discovered an 18-year-old youth from West Cornforth, County Durham, hiding in bushes; after carrying out a breath test the teenager was arrested for drink-driving and failing to stop.

He was taken to Darlington police station where he is being interviewed.

Chief Insp Andy Huddleston, head of the joint Durham and Cleveland specialist operations unit said: "This was a difficult and potentially dangerous pursuit.

"The officers involved had to work extremely hard to ensure no members of the public were injured and ultimately bring the incident to a safe conclusion."

Last night, the elderly resident whose house the youth crashed into, said she was unaware of the incident until the following morning.

"I slept though it all and the first I knew of it was when a scrapman called at my house offering to take the gates away," she said. "They were huge electric gates with three brick pillars.

"He must have hit them really hard.

"They were beautiful gates and are going to cost a lot to replace."