Ben Coe reached speeds in excess of 80-miles per hour in 30-limit residential streets as he tried to evade a following police vehicle late on Wednesday August 16.
Durham Crown Court heard that at one stage the police pursuers backed off as they considered it too dangerous to continue the chase.
Martin Towers, prosecuting, said two officers in the police patrol car spotted Coe at the wheel of a Seat Altea coming off a roundabout in Shiney Row, at speed at about 11.30pm.
Coe accelerated to above 80mph in streets restricted to 30 and made a sharp turn onto Chester Road and then on to Princes Street, before crossing a grassed area, as the police followed with blue lights and siren activated.
The defendant managed to negotiate a narrow gap between a small fence and then continued at high speed on neighbouring residential streets.
Read more: Easington man jailed for two dangerous driving offences in Peterlee
Mr Towers said the police officers lost sight of the Seat after a right-hand bend and the officers considered it unsafe to carry on in such a manner in that locality.
They continued to search for the vehicle, however, and noticed tyre tracks on grass off Hunter Street, before hearing an engine still running and spotting the Seat.
Coe surrendered to police but refused to give a roadside breath sample.
The officers noticed a three-year-old child in the car, who, although on a child seat, was not buckled in properly, while the defendant’s partner was in the front passenger seat.
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Despite refusing to give a roadside sample, the defendant did undergo the breath-test procedure on arrival at the police station, giving a reading of 57 for alcohol compared to the limit for driving of 35.
Coe, 24, of no fixed abode, made no comment in interview, but admitted dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol, no insurance and driving while disqualified when he appeared before magistrates.
The case was sent for sentence to the crown court, where the hearing was told Coe has a drink driving conviction dating from July last year, while he received a suspended sentence for attempted robbery at York Crown Court in March.
Mr Towers said the latest offending puts the defendant in breach of the suspended sentence order.
Read more: Motorists convicted of drink driving in County Durham and Darlington
Michael Cahill, for Coe, told the court: “He knows full well what he did was unacceptable.
“The period in custody has been a sobering experience for him and he knows he will now undergo a lengthy period of imprisonment.
“In his words, he knows he has, ‘messed up’.”
Judge Jo Kidd told Coe he was, “extraordinarily lucky” to have received the suspended sentence in March.
She said by the manner of his driving in the latest incident, he put himself, his partner and the young child passenger, “in extreme peril”.
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Judge Kidd told Coe: “It’s by pure chance that others did not come into your path and thereby receive injuries and suffer damage.”
She imposed a 12-month prison sentence for the dangerous driving but activated the full 16 months of the suspended sentence order, consecutively, making a total of 28-months’ imprisonment.
Coe was also banned from driving for a total of 50 months.
