Banned driver led police on 111mph chase crashed and left two people with life-changing injuries

Billy Morrison was being chased by police when he crashed into a row of vehicles on the A61 at Skipton on Swale.

A passenger in one of the vehicles - an 80-year-old woman - was left with 11 different bone fractures. She was taken to hospital with cracked ribs, vertebrae and ankle bones and is still recovering from her injuries.

The passenger in the car Morrison was driving - a Mitsubishi Shogun 4x4 - was also seriously hurt and has had to stop working as a result of his injuries.

Morrisons, of Barnsley, had been banned from driving just three weeks before the crash, but had continued to drive. He was arrested immediately after the incident in September.

During police interviews, the 20-year-old lied about who was driving the vehicle, but later accepted responsibility and pleaded guilty to two counts of causing injury by dangerous driving; one count of dangerous driving; driving while disqualified; diving without insurance; driving while unfit through drink or drugs and failing to provide a specimen.

He was sentenced on December 4 at York Crown Court. The judge said Morrison showed “complete disregard” for other road users during “a horrific series of manoeuvres”, and had no option but to jail Morrison for three years and nine months, - the maximum sentence allowed for the offences.

He was also banned from driving for a further eight years.

After the sentencing, Detective Sergeant Kirsten Aldridge, who led the police investigation for North Yorkshire Police, said: “Morrison showed no regard whatsoever for the lives of other road users, and left two people with horrendous injuries that have changed their lives.

“This incident has no doubt also had a lasting impact on those who he narrowly missed whilst trying to evade police.

“To then lie to us about who was driving and try to blame his actions on someone else was nothing short of cowardly and deceitful.

“Driving while banned may seem like a minor offence to some people. But this case illustrates the contempt for the law and the risk to the public that disqualified drivers can pose, which is why we work so hard to get them off our roads.”

The incident was referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) which is standard practice for collisions that follow a police pursuit. The IOPC investigation remains ongoing.