A DRIVER who failed to stop for police led officers on a 115mph chase, dangerously overtaking other vehicles, crossing double white lines and driving the wrong way around a roundabout, Taunton Crown Court has heard.

Officers kept up with the rented Ford Focus driven by Eliot Kelly along the A358 between Ilminster and Taunton but lost him when he sped through Burrowbridge and parked at Burrow Mump, where he "disappeared through a hedge".

Patrick Mason, prosecuting, said that during the pursuit on May 15, "if there was a traffic regulation, he (Kelly) broke it".

He added that Kelly, 30, of Eastbourne Road, Taunton, who admitted dangerous driving after his arrest, had made his way to his partner's home after jumping out of the car.

Kelly also admitted careless driving on October 23 last year when he was seen driving "rather too fast and quite badly around the centre of Ilminster" in another rented Ford Focus, Mr Mason said.

Later police attempted to stop Kelly after seeing him "going round roundabouts too fast and driving very badly", but he headed towards them and collided with their car before driving off.

Officers the next day spotted the damaged car outside a house in Silver Street, Ilminster, where he was living at the time.

After his arrest he admitted careless driving and attempting to pervert the course of justice after falsely reporting the car as stolen the day after the incident.

Emma Martin, defending, told the court that Kelly, who has spent time awaiting sentencing in Winchester Prison, where he was locked up for 23.5 hours a day, was trying to turn his life around.

Kelly was handed concurrent 12 month sentences for perverting the course of justice and dangerous driving, both suspended for two years, along with a four-month curfew and two-year driving ban.

He received no separate penalty for failing to stop after an accident and careless driving.

He was also ordered to pay £580 costs and a £140 statutory surcharge.

Judge David Ticehurst told Kelly: "This was an appalling way to behave. You could have killed someone. You really didn't care who you damaged, who you might have killed or who you might have hurt."

Kelly told the judge: "That'll teach me a lesson."