A DRUG addict from Nelson drove at up to 150mph up the M6 because he did not want the pursuing police to find the stash of heroin and crack cocaine he had in his car, a court was told.

Carlisle Crown Court heard that the 53-mile chase came to an end in a crash on the outskirts of Carlisle, when Imran Ayub, 26, could not slow down in time to negotiate a roundabout after turning off the motorway at Junction 43.

Ayub, who was escaping from an arranged marriage in Pakistan and on his way to Scotland with his English girlfriend, wrote off his Nissan coupe in the crash.

Ayub, of Bradley Road, Nelson, Lancashire, was jailed for two years when he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and possessing class A drugs with the intent to supply them to his girlfriend Danielle Taylor.

The court heard Ayub had 38 grams of heroin and 14.5 grams of crack cocaine - together worth more than £1,000.

Judge Robert Brown described his driving as "appalling" and said it was nothing less than a miracle that neither Ayub nor his girlfriend was severely injured.

Oliver Jarvis, defending, said Ayub, knowing he had the drugs in his car, panicked when police tried to conduct a routine check at the Burton services near Kendal.

He said Ayub was on the run from his family, who had forced him into an arranged marriage in Pakistan because they did not approve of his relationship with Miss Taylor because she was a drug addict.

Mr Jarvis said that, after initially resisting the idea of the marriage, Ayub had been persuaded to go through with it while on a trip to Pakistan for his sister's wedding.

While there, he became addicted to heroin.

When he returned to England, he resumed his relationship with Miss Taylor and decided to go away with her to Scotland, spending most of the £2,000 his parents had given him as a wedding present on enough drugs to see him through.

Ayub was banned from driving for two years and ordered to pay £550 court costs.