TWO men who sped through a busy town in a stolen Mini before trying to flee from police across farmland have been spared jail.

Driver Mohammed Khaliq, 23, and passenger Waseem Nawaz, 31, were spotted by police after refusing to dip their headlights while driving towards Skipton on the A629 at around 1am on January 21.

Prosecutor Ian Howard told Bradford Crown Court that after police signalled for Khaliq to stop, he sped off, evading a second patrol car that tried to prevent him driving into the town centre.

The car was driven above the speed limit up High Street, before leaving Skipton on Raikes Road.

At one point during the chase, Nawaz leant out of the window and threw a glass bottle at police, narrowly missing their car.

Khaliq slowed down when the Mini reached the village of Thorlby, with both men jumping from the vehicle to try and escape on foot.

Despite running into nearby fields and a cowshed, the pair, who were now being followed by the police helicopter, were caught and arrested.

Khaliq, of Broomfield Road, Keighley, had pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving without a licence or insurance prior to yesterday’s sentencing hearing.

Nawaz, of Nab Wood Drive, Shipley, entered a guilty plea to charges of aiding and abetting dangerous driving and a failure to surrender to court.

Mr Howard said the prosecution accepted a basis of plea that neither of the defendants knew that the car - which had been taken from its owner Martin Johnson on December 23 last year - was stolen.

Jayne Beckett, mitigating for Khaliq, described her client as an immature young man with “entrenched mental health issues.”

She said he suffered from ADHD and “functioned at a very low level of intellect.”

Recorder Simon Batiste said he accepted that Khaliq had a “number of vulnerabilities” after reading a psychological report that stated he had an IQ of between 52 and 62, putting him in the bottom 0.2 per cent of the population and equating to a mental age of nine years old.

A probation report for Nawaz highlighted that he had been in drink at the time of the offence, but also stated he had successfully completed an alcohol treatment order imposed as part of a previous community-based sentence.

Recorder Batiste told the pair that driving into the centre of Skipton at speed at that time on a Saturday night was “clearly a very dangerous activity to undertake.”

He sentenced Khaliq to nine months in prison, suspended for two years, ordered him a complete a 30-day rehabilitation requirement, and banned him from driving for 18 months.

Nawaz was given a 12-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work and a 15-day rehabilitation requirement.

He was banned from driving for a year.

Recorder Batiste said: “You have both come very close to being locked up today. There are only so many times you will be given a chance, so don’t push the court’s patience.”