A DRINK-DRIVER who caused chaos during a Remembrance Day parade was jailed after a judge heard how he squashed a policeman between two cars as he tried to flee.

Paul Gibson reversed the stolen car into the officer when he attempted to stop him as dignitaries and former soldiers gathered near Middlesbrough town centre.

A high-speed police chase - aborted earlier because of the crowds and a road-block - was resumed before Gibson, 28, ploughed into a line of parked cars streets away.

The drama unfolded in the Linthorpe area of town at about 11.30am on Sunday, November 11 last year, prosecutor Rachel Masters told Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

Miss Masters said the Kia driven by Gibson stopped at a road closure near the Dorman Museum, but when the officer got out to talk to him, he reversed and trapped him.

Gibson sped off but after he crashed and was arrested, he said: "I don't know what you're on about. I haven't been driving. See you tomorrow when I'm nfa'd."

His barrister, Brian Russell, said Gibson, of Beaumont Road, Middlesbrough, had returned to drinking and taking drugs after the death of a premature child.

Mr Russell said the defendant - who has a catalogue of violence and driving crimes on his "terrible" 40-offence record - is "belatedly growing up".

He had a son born in the last fortnight, said the barrister, who told Judge Tony Briggs: "He expresses great anxiety about the prospect of custody for that reason."

Gibson, who admitted aggravated vehicle taking, failing to provide a specimen of breath and driving without a licence or insurance, was jailed for nine months.