Danny Bailey overtook an unmarked police car while he was riding around Hartlepool on a Surron off-road e-bike and officers decided to follow him, Teesside Crown Court heard.
The 23-year-old was then spotted making an abusive gesture towards a learner driver going at a roundabout before overtaking other vehicles on the wrong side of the road.
Anthony Petterngell, prosecuting, said: “The defendant went out of sight of the officers before coming back into view heading towards Winterbottom Road where a driving school car entered the roundabout and he has stuck his fingers up the driver.
“He then went through a red light onto Warren Road and he was then spotted on the pavement outside a shop.
“An officer called out ‘police wait there’ and took hold of his arm and the defendant said ‘oh, s***’ before attempting to flee.”
Mr Pettengell said the officer was injured after he manged to keep hold of the defendant but was dragged a short way across the road.
Danny Bailey when he appeared in court in 2022(Image: Cleveland Police)
Bailey, of Hazel Grove, Hartlepool, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving without a licence and driving without insurance after he was arrested on October 24 last year.
Stephen Constantine, mitigating, said his client accepts that his behaviour had crossed the custody threshold but had managed to stay out of trouble for 11 months since the incident.
He said: “The distance across the road into the car park was about 15 yards, there’s nothing really more worthwhile that I can say about the offence than that – it speaks for itself.”
Mr Constantine said the offence occurred three months after he was released from a 27-month prison sentence for stabbing someone in January 2022.
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Recorder Ciaran Rankin sentenced Bailey to 12-months in prison suspended for 18 months after he pleaded guilty to the offences.
He said: “You gesticulated to a learner driver in a pretty offensive way and a pretty immature way before going through a red light.
“You were told to stop by a police officer but the officer managed to get hold of you but you still tried to drive away.”
Bailey was ordered to attend 20 rehabilitation activity requirement days, carry out 150 hours of unpaid work, a three month curfew, and was banned from driving for 12 months.
