A DRIVER who rammed police cars was disqualified for the 23rd time yesterday and jailed for two years.

Malcolm Honeyman terrified three female passengers in his girlfriend's car when he drove through red lights and over pavements at 60mph in Hartlepool.

He reversed the Fiesta four times into a police van and drove head-on into a police car. Two officers smashed the Fiesta's windows with their batons before Honeyman, 38, drove off over a grassed area.

Robert Terry, prosecuting, at Teesside Crown Court said police finally blocked him in with their vehicles. Honeyman later failed a breath-test.

The court heard he had 22 convictions for driving while disqualified, one for dangerous driving and excess alcohol and was jailed and banned for five years last September.

He told police he had drunk seven bottles of beer at his girlfriend's house and offered to drive home two women to end an argument. He said he panicked when he saw a police van behind him.

Honeyman, of Brampton Road, South Shields, South Tyneside, was jailed for two years and banned for five years after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, driving with excess alcohol and no insurance on February 25.