A DRIVER who led debt collectors on a high-speed chase along a major road has been sent to prison for four months.

Blackburn magistrates jailed Malcolm Jones, 57, of Clarence Street, Darwen, after hearing how he tried to avoid to two men from a Darwen garage who arrived at his house to collect £310 which was owed on a Ford Capri.

Neil Standage, prosecuting, said Jones spotted them and tried to escape in the Capri from the back of the house while the men were on the front doorstep.

But the debt collectors spotted the car emerging from a back alley and gave chase.

Mr Standage said Jones set off at speed up the A666 and drove through two sets of traffic lights on red.

Witnesses described the car being driven at 50mph on the main road. At the contraflow system at Cravens Brow, Jones drove towards oncoming cars at a speed described by witnesses as 40mph. Mr Standage said: "A witness saw the Capri hit a lamp-post and two oncoming vehicles before ending up on the pavement."

Jones left the car and ran off but was caught in a headlock by one of his pursuers and brought back to the crashed Capri, by which time the police had arrived.

The court heard a breath test showed almost double the legal drink drive limit.

Jones denied drink-driving and careless driving but was found guilty in his absence at an earlier hearing, banned from driving and bailed for reports.

Michael Blacklidge, defending, said Jones had no previous convictions for drink-driving.

The car was insured and taxed and he would not have driven it if he had not been pursued for money by the two men from the garage.

After the sentence, Mr Blacklidge lodged an appeal against conviction and sentence but the magistrates refused to grant bail pending the appeal, which Mr Blacklidge said could take two or three weeks.

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