Drug driver from South Shields hid under his bed to avoid detection from Northumbria Police

Shay Carrick, 20, was spotted driving a silver Volvo S40 on cloned plates in Greenside, near the Nook, South Shields, at 7.10pm on Friday, November 8, a court heard.

Carrick, of Fulwell Avenue, Horsley Hill, South Shields, was pursued by officers after he got out and ran into a nearby property, prosecutor John Garside said.

He was found under a bed and arrested, and a blood test proved he was over the legal driving limit for cocaine and cannabis derivatives.

The offender also had no driving licence or insurance, and he was on a suspended prison sentence for a weapons offence.

At South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court, he pleaded guilty to two counts of drug driving and one each of driving without insurance and a licence.

Magistrates activated nine weeks of his 18-week suspended sentence and jailed him for six concurrent weeks for each drug driving offence, to run consecutively.

Mr Garside said: “Police were on mobile patrol in an unmarked vehicle when they saw the defendant driving a motor vehicle which was described as having cloned registration plates.

“He stopped the vehicle in Greenside and ran into a property in Greenside. Police have gone in after him and he was under a bed. He was arrested.”

Carrick gave a reading for cocaine breakdown product BZE of not less than 56mcg. The legal limit is 50mcg.

He also gave a reading for cannabis derivative THC of not less than 2.5mcg, against a legal limit of 2mcg.

Magistrates were told Carrick was handed his prison sentence for having a bladed article in public, suspended for a year, in May.

Alastair Naismith, defending, said the drug drive offences would not normally carry a custodial sentence by themselves.

But he conceded magistrates had to consider whether or not to activate the suspended sentence.

He added: “These matters do put him in breach of the suspended sentence. There’s no evidence of poor driving.

“The police were alerted to the car because of its number plates, not because of anything that he was doing in it.

“There is potentially an issue with his cannabis use. He is in breach of the sentence.

“I think you need to look at if the new matters justify activation of the order or if it doesn’t.

“You can make the suspended sentence more onerous. He understands that he’s got to be disqualified from driving.

“The most important decision you have to make is whether it would be unjust to activate.

“The new offences are dissimilar to those the suspended sentence was imposed for.”

Jailing Carrick, John Lee, chair of the bench, told him he would have been warned not to commit another offence when spared prison for the bladed article crime.

Mr Lee added: “A few months later, you are caught driving over the drug limit.

“The first port of call when somebody is on a suspended sentence is to activate that sentence.”

Carrick was also banned from driving for 92 weeks, and must pay a £154 victim surcharge and £85 court costs.