By Staff Reporter

Last updated 09:37, Saturday, 15 November 2008

A man who was spared prison after being involved in a race in which two people died has now been locked up – for driving his off-road motor bike at two policemen.

Jamie Harkness, 21, was given a suspended sentence for dangerous driving after Joe Austin, 18, and his passenger Shaun Bradberry, 19, died when their car crashed while they were racing on the A6 on the outskirts of Carlisle in January 2006.

But at Carlisle Crown Court he was ordered to serve that nine-month sentence as well as an extra 12 months imposed for his latest set of offences.

The judge, Recorder John Bromley-Davenport QC, told him: “One would have thought you might have learned from that terrible and traumatic experience in which, as a result of your racing, two people died. But obviously not. This could have resulted in another death.”

Prosecutor Gerard Rogerson told the court that the latest incident came after police saw Harkness, of Springfield Road, Carlisle, riding his motor bike with two pillion passengers on the road from Cumwhinton.

The police tried to stop the bike, but Harkness deliberately drove it at them, making them jump out of the way, he said.

One of the officers tried to stop the slow-moving motorbike with his baton, but – though one of the pillion passengers fell off – Harkness accelerated away. When the bike was eventually stopped in Cumwhinton Harkness was found to be nearly twice over the legal drink-drive limit.

In mitigation, defence barrister Frank Nance said Harkness had a weakness for motor vehicles. “Apart from his predilection for getting into or onto something mechanical and doing something very stupid with it, he is a decent hard-working young man,” he said.

Harkness pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol, driving while disqualified, having no insurance, carrying two pillion passengers and riding without a crash helmet.

In addition to his 21-month prison sentence he was banned from driving for two years.