A MAN who got an "exceptional" suspended sentence after a police chase was caught behind the wheel again just a month later.

Carl Hislop was not as fortunate this time when he met Judge Sean Morris at Teesside Crown Court.

The 36-year-old one-time Class A drugs gang member was jailed for ten months as his girlfriend wailed hysterically in the public gallery.

In 2012, he was one of 11 people to be locked for conspiring to supply crack cocaine and heroin in his then-home town of Swindon.

He was given a suspended sentence for affray, which he breached by threatening staff, behaving indecently and damaging a cell door at a police station.

But a "lenient" judge simply added 20 hours to his unpaid community work requirement.

In January, Hislop appeared at Teesside Crown Court for dangerous driving and was given a ten-month suspended sentence because it was an exceptional case.

The incident happened last November, when he rang 999 to say he was on the A19 and planned to kill himself by driving into a crash barrier.

Following a police chase, he abandoned his car and waded into the sea at Saltburn, but was pulled to safety.

But within a month of being given the suspended sentence, he was stopped by police in Darlington in a Vauxhall Astra, and told them: "I'm banged to rights."

Judge Morris told him: "This is the second time you have breached a suspended sentence. Swindon Crown Court was lenient with you.

"You have got to know when a judge gives you a chance you don't throw it back in the face of the court."

Hislop, of Irskine Road, Hartlepool, was also banned from the roads for 17 months after he admitted driving while disqualified and having no insurance.

His barrister, Victoria Lamballe, said: "The defendant attends court well aware he was fortunate indeed to receive the sentence he did in January, knowing a breach meant custody

"It has to be accepted that he was given a chance and he has not availed himself of that chance."