(Image: Durham Constabulary)
A machete-carrying drug dealer who led police on a dangerous e-bike chase through Darlington has been jailed for three years.
Bobby Duxfield came to police attention after reports that criminals on Sur-Ron-style bikes had threatened members of the public with a machete at midday on September 21.
Teesside Crown Court heard that officers in a marked police car went to the location of the incident, on Toronto Way.
Prosecutor Emma Atkinson said Duxfield fled police, but aerial support helped the officers on the ground to track the defendant.
Defendant Bobby Duxfield given three-year prison sentence after conviction for drug supply, machete possession and dangerous driving offences (Image: Durham Constabulary)
Duxfield reached 60mph in a residential area, mounting the pavement and driving across grass near Geneva Road.
He also weaved through bollards and barriers and ran red lights, forcing other drivers to take evasive action.
Miss Atkinson said the police driver stopped the pursuit when Duxfield mounted the pavement in the town centre as it was too dangerous to follow.
But air support helped officers locate Duxfield who ended by driving in the direction of a police vehicle, off Hutton Road.
Officers found him in possession of a machete, 113 wraps of cocaine and £1,320 in cash when they arrested him.
After making no comment in interview, the 21-year-old admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply, dangerous driving without a licence or insurance, possessing an offensive weapon and possessing criminal cash when he appeared before magistrates the following day.
The court heard he has eight previous offences on his record, including careless and drug driving, being drunk and disorderly and possessing drugs.
Johnny Walker, in mitigation, said a deferred sentence might “test his mettle” as the September 21 offending and the prospect of prison had been, “a shock to the system”.
Judge Tom Mitchell said the number of young offenders “terrifying people” on e-bikes had created “a level of public expectation” about sentencing.
But he said: “I’m not here to please people” and described sentencing as difficult because of Duxfield's age and prompt guilty pleas.
The judge told him that although he had previous offences, “you have never been in trouble like this before”.
He said: “It would be all too easy to see you as an armed street dealer of drugs who did his best to evade police and, in doing so, you were clearly a danger to other people.
“When you knew the game was up you could have just stopped and gone quietly, but you didn’t.”
The judge said Duxfield would have faced a six-year starting point for sentence if he had been much older.
While accepting there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation, he said “the line has to be drawn” and the offending was too serious for a non-custodial sentence.
The judge sentenced Duxfield to three years in prison, banned him from driving for three years and ordered him to pass an extended test before he is able to drive legally in future.
He also ordered the machete to be forfeited and destroyed and the seized cash to be confiscated.