A MOTORING menace led police on a 90mph chase before crashing into a tree with his pregnant girlfriend in the passenger seat.

John Robinson - who had six previous convictions for dangerous driving - was jailed for what a judge called "appalling" behaviour.

Robinson was locked up for 18 months and banned from the roads for five years after a court heard he had never even passed a test.

The 29-year-old raced from Seaton Carew to the Central Estate in Hartlepool, through Owton Manor and the town centre.

He went the wrong way around roundabouts, drove on the wrong side of the road and flew through red lights in the pursuit.

His barrister, Jim Withyman, said Robinson did not know his new partner was pregnant at the time of the drama last month.

"He realises he deserves a custodial sentence today," Mr Withyman said. "But he is in a position where he has made changes.

"He now says he has a future with his partner, and he wants to take part in his child's future and provide for his family."

Mr Withyman said unemployed Robinson, from Hartlepool, was sorry, and asked for a deferred sentence so he could prove himself.

But the judge, Recorder Andrew Sutcliffe, QC, said he had to be locked up because of his "lamentable" record of car crime.

Robinson's previous convictions - which go back to when he was 14 - include repeated disqualified driving and theft.

The judge at Teesside Crown Court told him: "It is hard to conceive a more appalling example of dangerous driving."

The court heard that Robinson had bought the Vauxhall Corsa just two days before the 2.30am incident on December 2.

Robinson, now of Dacre Street, South Shields, admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop, driving while disqualified and having no insurance.