A DANGEROUS drink driver was told it was ‘pure chance’ no-one was killed during a police chase, captured on an officer’s body camera.

Lee Jones accelerated to up to twice the speed limit in the Mercedes and drove on the wrong side of the road before he was eventually cornered under a bridge near Ledbury on March 22.

The 25-year-old admitted dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, driving without insurance and drink driving when he was sentenced at Worcester Crown Court on Friday.

The pursuit began in Cradley, west of Malvern, on the B4220 with Jones driving in the direction of Bosbury and Ledbury, travelling at 60mph in a 30mph road at one stage.

The pursuing officer can be heard giving a commentary throughout the footage.

He asks if colleagues have units ready at the travellers site at Tinkers Corner, if tactical units are available to carry out a manoeuvre and if another officer has a stinger.

The pursuit carries on through Bosbury before entering the B4214 towards Ledbury through Staplow. A stinger is deployed unsuccessfully and Jones enters a closed road, driving through floodwater as he approaches the A438.

Officers can be seen smashing the car’s windows. One says: “Get out of the car! You’re nicked! Dangerous driving and failing to stop. Hands behind your back.”

Christopher Lester, prosecuting, said the pursuit, which took place at night, lasted around 10 minutes. Jones and the pursuit officers did not encounter any other vehicles. The defendant's alcohol reading was 50mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, above the limit of 35mcg.

He added: “The blue lights are flashing. It’s perfectly clear he should have stopped.”

Jones received a nine month jail sentence suspended for 18 months for aggravated TWOC on November 1, 2016. It was activated a month later.

Jason Patel, defending, asked the judge to suspend the sentence, saying an immediate custodial sentence would have a significant harmful impact upon others. He described Jones as ‘quiet' and a 'very sombre and introverted character’.

He added: “On that particular day he had been out with a friend and had consumed some alcohol.”

Jones of Cornwallis Way, Monmouth, had been dropped back at his father’s mechanic’s yard and planned to sleep in the Mercedes before he chose to drive home instead.

“I don’t seek to minimise what we saw. When seen by the police he had panicked” Mr Patel said.

Judge Anthony Lowe told Jones: "Dangerous driving so often leads to death by dangerous driving."

He added: "What underpins all of this offending is anger. You seem to have a high degree of anger in you.

"Having served a sentence of custody one might have thought you had learned your lesson.

"This is the second time you have been involved in bad driving. Though this was not the most serious of dangerous driving, part of that was because there was no other vehicles coming in the opposite direction. That is pure chance."

The judge jailed Jones for six months, banned him from driving for two years (to begin after his release from prison in three months) and ordered him to complete an extended driving test.