A TRUCK driver who feared he would be caught drink-driving, panicked and reversed into a police car, knocking an officer to the ground, a court heard yesterday.

When he later pulled over, police had to spray him with CS gas in case he tried to escape again.

Adrian Maxwell Williams, 30, of Tennyson Gardens, Darlington, admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop and failing to provide a blood test for police when he appeared before Darlington magistrates.

James Thomas, prosecuting, said: "The defendant had been drinking in the Darlington area on September 7.

"He went to his ex-partner's house and there was a verbal exchange, and he left and drove back into Darlington."

The court heard his former partner had called the police, who saw Williams' car and stopped him.

Mr Thomas said: "Unfortunately, the defendant has driven back into the police car. Then as an officer has tried to remove him from the car, he has driven off and the officer has fallen to the ground and suffered some minor injuries."

Williams later stopped and was arrested, but when taken to the police station he refused to take a blood test.

Graham Hunsley, mitigating, said: "The dangerous driving really occurred at a fairly slow speed and it was dangerous because of the proximity of the officers.

"This was originally a domestic incident. His girlfriend lives in the Yarm area and there were some words exchanged and he decided to go back to Darlington. Police were contacted as a result of the words exchanged at Yarm and they wanted to stop him.

"He was concerned about what would happen, and effectively it was just blind panic.

"From an argument with his partner his whole world is effectively falling down in ruins around him.

"He has done nothing but driving. He has been with his present employer for the past five years, but as a truck driver without a licence he is no employee at all."

Mr Hunsley also said the CS gas had confused Williams, who believed he had to seek legal advice before giving a blood test at the police station.

Williams was given an interim disqualification from driving until his sentence hearing on November 18