A banned driver led police on a car chase before crashing into a house – causing over £2,000 of damage.

Joseph King, a notorious criminal and convicted drug dealer, sped from police around Harrogate and Knaresborough, overtaking multiple vehicles and taking “huge risks”, York Crown Court heard yesterday.

When he crashed into the front of the house, bringing the chase to an abrupt end, a woman was inside the home but was mercifully at the back of the property, said prosecutor Brooke Morrison.

King, 31, who had three passengers in the car, jumped out of the vehicle after the crash and tried to run off, but police caught up with him after a short chase and he was cuffed.

The damage caused to the house and the car, which did not belong to King, was estimated to be £2,340.

Ms Morrison said King’s passengers had to be pulled out of the badly damaged car which was stuck in the front of the house.

King refused to answer police questions following his arrest but ultimately pleaded guilty to dangerous driving. 

He appeared for sentence via video link on Thursday, August 15, from a custody booth at Ranby Prison in Nottinghamshire, where he is currently serving a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence for possessing cocaine with intent to supply.

The court heard that King - formerly of Starbeck but whose latest address was Ashbourne Road in Boroughbridge - initially hit speeds of 80mph when he sped from cops just outside Harrogate, “overtaking multiple vehicles and driving across both lanes of traffic”.

Growing increasingly “desperate” to evade police, King - who wasn’t insured and had been banned from driving just weeks before the high-speed chase on November 4 last year - then took ever higher risks as he sped past roadworks into heavy traffic, until he finally crashed into the house.

Second sentence in five months

Just five months ago, he was jailed for drug dealing for the second time in four years after police swooped on his home on February 2. They found weapons including a baseball bat with screws in it, along with weighing scales, dealer bags, debt lists and cutting agents.

They also found drugs worth between £530 and £795 which King had thrown out of a window just before they arrived. 

Text messages found on his phone showed that the drug-dealing enterprise had been “significant” in terms of scale and would have yielded “substantial amounts of money”.

King’s criminal record included a previous conviction for drug supply in April 2019 when he was jailed for three years for possession with intent to supply cocaine and skunk cannabis in Harrogate. He also had previous convictions for burglary, driving under the influence of drugs and failing to stop after an accident.

In October last year he was given a community order and alcohol-treatment programme for driving while disqualified and without insurance.

Yesterday, judge Simon Hickey said the dangerous-driving offence was aggravated by King’s shocking criminal record.

He said it was only luck that the female householder was in the back of the house when the car smashed into the front of her property and that King had also put his three passengers’ lives at risk.

King received a 10-month prison sentence, which will run consecutively to the three-and-a-half-year jail term he was currently serving. He was also given a three-year driving ban.