A MAN who has now been convicted four times for dangerous driving and six times for driving while disqualified has been jailed for 13 months.

Serial bad driver Izraar Malik failed to stop for police and led officers on a high speed evening rush-hour chase through central Middlesbrough.

Teesside Crown Court heard that when a police van pulled out in front of him in an effort to bring him to a halt, Malik simply drove up onto a pavement and around it.

The pursuit, which began in Lothian Road and saw Malik recklessly overtaking busy commuter traffic at speed, ended when he abandoned the Audi car he was driving in Hutton Road, off Longlands Road, in the town.

The 28-year-old defendant, of Abingdon Road, Middlesbrough, was arrested and told officers he was in fact a passenger in the car and another man had been doing the driving.

He later admitted dangerous driving and driving while disqualified on May 12 this year.

In 2013 Malik was jailed for two years for dangerous driving after his car narrowly avoided a collision with a taxi and hit a concrete pillar. He also has past convictions for drugs.

Kelleigh Lodge, mitigating, said Malik had been with a friend who asked him for a lift.

She said: “It was an impulsive, rash decision to drive. He then panicked and thought he was being followed by another car, not the police.”

Malik, a father of two, had been in custody since May and wished to be reunited with his children, she said.

He was also more motivated to get back into work and had the offer of employment at a restaurant in Middlesbrough.

Judge Simon Hickey said Malik’s driving record worsened the position.

He told him: “Once the police invite a person to stop – if there is a chase of any nature then the motorist will go to prison.

“There is the potential in such driving that puts us all at risk.”

Judge Hickey jailed Malik for a total of 13 months and also said he would be disqualified from driving for two years and two months.