A 20-year-old driver who led police on a dangerous chase through the centre of a Worcestershire town and then claimed his car had been stolen has been locked up.

Police were forced to abandon the pursuit because Robert Smith was driving too dangerously as he tried to get away because he had drugs in his car, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Rhyddian James, prosecuting, said a police patrol saw Smith driving away in a Citroen Xsara from the Esso service station in Vale Road, Stourport, at 2.50am on Sunday, May 4, this year. The car was registered out of the area and uninsured so they followed Smith as he drove at 45 mph in a 30mph area.

When they put the blue lights on to stop him, he accelerated away and during a chase lasting less than half a minute in the town centre, he drove the wrong way on a one-way street, veered onto the wrong side of the road and drove straight across a mini-roundabout before they abandoned the pursuit because it was too dangerous, Mr James said.

The car was later discovered abandoned at the back of the Brinton Arms pub and at 4am police had a phone call from Smith saying it had earlier been stolen from their home in Millgate, Stourport.. His partner, 21-year-old Zoe May, backed up his story and said the spare keys were taken from a kitchen drawer but when police viewed CCTV from the Esso station, it was clear May and Smith had been in the car.

Smith pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving with no licence or insurance in Hartlebury Road and the Gilgal, Stourport. Smith and May both pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Smith told police it was his idea and he had told May to go along with it. She told police she had begged him to stop the car and let her out, Mr James said.

Michael Aspinall, defending Smith, said he had a small amount of cannabis in the car and he had panicked. He now realised it had been an "extremely stupid" thing to do.

"In a vainglorious attempt to get out of it, he then started something that was doomed to failure," Mr Aspinall said.

Recorder Allan Mainds said Smith had a bad record for a man of his age and as a father of two young children, he now had to make decisions about his future. He was given four months for dangerous driving and four months for attempting to pervert the course of justice, to run consecutively, a total of eight months in a young offenders institution.

He was banned from driving for two years and will have to take an extended re-test. There was no separate penalty for the other offences.

May was given four months suspended for 18 months with 12 months supervision and 100 hours unpaid work.