The solicitor for a 17-year-old drug addict today asked a judge to put the boy behind bars so he could escape from hardened criminals.

The youth, cast out by his family and left to fend for himself, fell easy prey to drug dealers on the streets of Bradford, the city’s Crown Court was told.

He had refused to co-operate with probation officers so that the court would have no alternative but to lock him up.

The teenager, who cannot be named because of his age, pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to supply and dangerous driving while on bail for street drug dealing.

The judge, Recorder Julian Smith, sentenced him to a 12-month Detention and Training Order.

He said the teenager’s probation report made it clear he was not prepared to comply with a non-custodial order.

Determined to stop taking drugs, he thought being locked up would do him good.

“I have rarely read a report so bleak in its terms,” the judge said.

Prosecutor Ken Green said the youth, who was 16 at the time, sped away from police officers in Duckworth Lane, Girlington, Bradford, in May last year.

After a short pursuit, in which he travelled at 50mph in a 20mph zone, he hit a parked vehicle and fled on foot. He was caught after throwing down 16 wraps of cocaine with a street value of £92.

His solicitor Phillip Ainge told the judge his client had endured a bleak start in life. Continually pressurised by criminals, he said the boy now wanted to be locked up “to sort himself out”.

Mr Ainge said the youth was a personable young man with insight into his situation.