A DRIVER with "simply appalling" record for car crime led police on a drunk and dangerous chase after answering a plea for help from his ill mother, a court heard.

Darryl Donoghue was spared prison after a judge said it had been an achievement for someone with his past to have stayed out of trouble for seven years.

Donoghue had a 20-year spell of repeated court appearances for vehicle crime until he suddenly stopped in 2010 after the "life-changing" birth of his daughter.

But the 39-year-old got behind the wheel of a friend's car after a drinking session after his disabled mother phoned him to say she had suffered a fall.

When police saw black smoke coming from the exhaust of the Saab, they followed it and Donoghue pulled over – but sped off when the officer got out of his car.

A pursuit through the outskirts of Middlesbrough from Ormesby Bank to Ladgate Lane and back at speeds of more than 60mph in 30mph zones followed on June 22.

Donoghue dumped the car and his passenger and ran off after leaving the road, going over a grassed area through bollards, but was found hiding in bushes.

A breath-test showed he had 80 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, two-and-a-half times the limit of 34mcg, Teesside Crown Court was told.

John Nixon, mitigating, said there had been "exceptional circumstances" in Donoghue's offending, because his mother had earlier suffered a stroke and he was a carer.

Donoghue, of West Dyke Road, Redcar, admitted charges of dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol, without a licence and having no insurance.

He was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for a year, and was ordered by Judge Simon Bourne-Arton, QC, to seek help for an alcohol problem.

The judge told the unemployed father-of-three: "I intend to mark the fact you have stayed out of trouble for this length of time in the sentence I pass."