A judge told an addict to “sort your life out” while jailing him for taking police on a high-speed chase.

Judge Catherine Brown heard Charlie Silk sped down the wrong side of a road, onto a footpath, and crashed into a fence before being arrested.

Jailing the 26-year-old for a year and one month at Canterbury Crown Court, she said: “You need to sort your life out basically, because if you continue to behave like this you will get longer and longer prison sentences.”

Silk’s red Peugeot came to a stop following the crash in River View, Canterbury, on May 1 this year.

His arrest at the scene, where he failed to provide officers with a specimen, was the latest in a recent spate of offending.

Silk, who has 20 convictions for 56 offences, was caught on CCTV stealing two bicycles worth £3,000 in August last year, prosecutors explained.

The thief and an unidentified accomplice were recorded pulling up to the bike rack in a van, jumping out, and using a power-saw to cut the bikes free.

'He has been in the grip of a serious addiction with a Class A drug.'

Silk, accompanied by a woman, was also caught on camera and recognised by police fleeing a B&M store with a full trolley in April this year.

“They were both seen putting various items in a trolley and making no effort to pay,” prosecutor Robert Harding said.

Silk, of Wellesley Road, Ashford, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving without insurance, theft and criminal damage at a previous hearing.

Mitigating, Amy Nicholson told Judge Brown Silk was remorseful, adding: “He has been in the grip of a serious addiction with a Class A drug.”

Silk was disqualified from driving for two years and 17 weeks and ordered to take an extended retest before being allowed back on the road.

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