A DANGER driver who drove through residential streets at more than double the speed limit during a police pursuit has been jailed for a total of 23 months.

The late-night incident, which lasted about 10 minutes in September last year, only came to an end when banned driver Benjamin Smith crashed the Vauxhall Astra into a garden wall on Roundwood Glen, Ravenscliffe, before he ran off along with his passenger.

Bradford Crown Court heard how a sniffer dog unit helped to find Smith hiding in undergrowth and when he was later breath tested he was found to be over the alcohol limit.

Recorder Geraldine Kelly was shown dashcam footage from two police vehicles which had been involved in the prolonged pursuit and she described Smith’s driving as “as bad as it gets”.

The footage captured Smith going through a red light, ignoring speed humps, and driving on the wrong side of a keep-left bollard.

Prosecutor Clare Walsh said the police officers described Smith as doing 80mph and 70mph on some of the 30mph streets.

Although he was arrested that night Smith, of Westroyd Avenue, Bradford, did not plead guilty until his case was listed for trial in August this year.

He eventually admitted charges of dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, driving while over the prescribed limit and driving without insurance.

The court heard that when he was breathalysed Smith gave an alcohol reading of 40 microgrammes in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Mrs Walsh said checks revealed that Smith had been disqualified from driving back in 2014 for a previous incident of dangerous driving and he had never taken the required extended re-test.

Barrister Camille Morland, for Smith, said the 37-year-old had been struggling for a number of years with excessive alcohol use and that night he had taken the car to get more alcohol.

“That decision, foolish as it was, has yet again been his downfall,” she said.

She said since the offences Smith had weaned himself off alcohol and he had been subject to an electronically monitored home curfew for more than 230 days.

But Recorder Kelly said the evidence from the dashcam footage was “overwhelming” and Smith was someone who thought the rules of the road didn’t apply to him.

“It’s a miracle that you are only here for dangerous driving and not having caused through that driving serious injury or death,” she told Smith.

She said it had been a determined effort over 10 minutes to try to get away from the police officers.

Recorder Kelly jailed Smith for 18 months on the dangerous driving offence and added a further five months for driving while disqualified.

She said Smith had an appalling driving record and the prison sentence must be served immediately.

Smith was also banned from driving again for three years and 10 months, but Recorder Kelly warned him that he would still have to take and pass the extended re-test before he could drive legally on the roads again.