A YOUNG entrepreneur who led police on a 70mph chase through residential streets was spared jail – partly because his family were in court to support him.

A judge told Aamir Suleman that he was impressed with his insight and remorse and the fact that his relatives and partner are standing by him.

Take-away boss Suleman, 26, was said to have panicked when police tried to stop him in Middlesbrough because he had earlier smoked cannabis.

He sped through 30mph zones in his Vauxhall Vectra just after midnight on September 12, went straight over a roundabout and did not slow down at a junction.

Teesside Crown Court heard that he abandoned his car when he hit a dead-end in Lansdowne Road, and he was caught nearby after running off.

His lawyer, Simon Walker, said a prison sentence would cause problems for Suleman’s business and the tenancy on the rented home he shares with his girlfriend.

Suleman, of Hilderthorpe. Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough, admitted dangerous driving and driving above the legal drug level.

He was given an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, banned from the roads for 18 months and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid community work by Recorder Simon Jackson, QC.

The judge told him: “I am impressed by the fact your family are here today. I have been impressed by your change of attitude. You do not seek to blame anybody else for your conduct.

“These factors and your plea of guilty allow me to deal with you in a way I would not otherwise have been first inclined to.”