To make Travis Fox's offending even worse, a magistrate has said, he was behind the wheel with no one else in the car.

"It's incredibly dangerous," magistrate Richard Funston has told the 18-year-old in Albury Local Court.

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Mr Funston pointed to a positive reference written for the young apprentice from Culcairn that stated what Fox did was an isolated and "silly" act.

"Well," he said, "it's more than silly."

Defence lawyer Henry Robinson had asked for Fox to be spared a conviction, but Mr Funston said he had no real choice in the matter given the circumstances of the offending.

"No matter how disappointing this is to you, I can't not record a conviction," he told Fox, on handing down his sentence.

"Even a driver of 40 years' experience I'd convict."

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Mr Robinson said Fox, who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and to being an unaccompanied learner driver, "has been kicking himself every day since" his offending.

He said Fox had already suffered the penalty of three months without his licence, which was suspended on the day.

But prosecutor Sergeant Andrew Pike said the seriousness of what Fox did could not be understated.

"He is, one would say, millimetres from disaster," Sergeant Pike said.

The court was told police were patrolling North Albury on July 13 about 10.10pm when they saw a Holden Commodore heading south on Mate Street "at a high rate of speed".

They estimated the car was travelling "well in excess of 100km/h" in what was a 60km/h speed zone.

The car stopped for a red light at the intersection with North Street and then, as police attempted to catch-up, pulled into Wood then Tribune streets.

Mr Funston convicted Fox and placed him on a 12-month community corrections order, as well as disqualifying him from driving for 12 months.

He was also fined $500.

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