A BANNED driver who fled a high speed crash had to be rescued by the police after he was found hanging by his fingertips from a wall with a 20ft drop.

Jordan Hatt ran off after losing control of his speeding car in a police pursuit, spinning across the carriageway and demolishing a stone wall.

Hatt, who was disqualified from driving only three months earlier, was jailed for 12 months at Bradford Crown Court yesterday and banned from driving for three and a half years.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving while disqualified shortly after midnight on October 30.

The court heard that Hatt, 27, of Rawson Street, Wyke, Bradford, had 15 previous convictions for 28 offences. His record included careless driving and failing to stop after an accident in 2013.

On July 18 this year, he was disqualified from driving for 12 months for failing to provide a specimen of breath for analysis on April 23.

Prosecutor Emma Downing said Hatt was spotted by the police driving a Ford Mondeo fast and erratically from Buttershaw Lane, Bradford, on to Halifax Road.

A blue light chase followed in which he turned off the car lights on Brighouse Road in a desperate bid to avoid detection.

Hatt crashed the car at 70mph in a 30mph zone in Cleckheaton Road, doing £10,000 damage to the wall and electrical boxes.

Miss Downing said he went to overtake a van that was turning right and lost control of the vehicle. It span across the road, mounted the kerb and hit the wall.

Hatt and his passenger ran off in different directions.

The police officer chasing Hatt pulled him to safety after finding him clinging to the wall over the drop.

An axe and a claw hammer were found in the Mondeo.

Ashok Khullar, Hatt's solicitor advocate, said he was a landscape gardener with three children.

He had not intended to drive that night but was tempted to make a foolish decision to go on a short journey to collect someone.

"It was a decision he should not have made and he now regrets," Mr Khullar said.

The judge, Recorder Simon Batiste, said: "It was a highly dangerous piece of driving and could have led to the death or serious injury of other people."

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