A “STUPID, immature game” between two motorists trying to out drive each other closed the A64 near York in both directions during the morning rush hour.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance and other emergency crews were called out to deal with the aftermath of Samuel Peter Myers crashing into the central reservation.

Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, said Myers, 22, had been driving too fast for the traffic conditions and he and an Audi driver had been undertaking each other.

Myers had taken the Urban Fox he was driving without permission, didn't have a licence, was uninsured and banned by a court order from associating with his front seat passenger.

Both people in the car had to be taken to hospital following the crash just before 8am on July 29 near Bilbrough. Neither was seriously injured, York Magistrates Court heard.

The A64 was completely closed between the Askham Bryan junction on the York Outer Ring Road and the A659 northern Tadcaster junction and didn't reopen completely until shortly before 10am.

"It only takes one person to behave like an idiot on the road for absolute mayhem to follow," district judge Adrian Lower told Myers.

"A rather stupid immature game took place between you and the driver of the Audi.

"There were an element of each of you showing off and trying to show you were the more impressive driver.

"Neither of you proved to be impressive."

Myers, of Parliament Street, Norton, pleaded guilty to aggravated taking a vehicle without consent, careless driving, driving without insurance and driving without a licence.

He was banned from driving for 12 months and given a 16-week prison sentence suspended for 18 months on condition he does a 33-day course on building relationships, and 200 hours' unpaid work.

Since July, he had served a four-month prison sentence for breaching a domestic violence protection order banning him from contacting the front seat passenger, and spent an extra period in behind bars when he was recalled to prison for not obeying parole conditions.

For him, David Camidge said it had been a "road rage type" incident between the two cars.

Myers was on universal credit but hoping to get a job.

The front seat passenger attended court to support Myers.

The Audi driver was not prosecuted after he agreed to go on a driver awareness programme.