A MAN was jailed yesterday after he snatched his teenage former girlfriend off the street and sped off with her in a car.

Young mother Danielle Clough, 18, told police that she was terrified that the Peugeot 407 would plunge off the Newport Bridge entering Middlesbrough.

She was able to text her father, who flagged down police cars, but she was released before they found her, prosecutor Christopher Knox told Teesside Crown Court.

Miss Clough had received 16 missed calls on December 16 from her ex-boyfriend Kaefi Bayez, 33, an Iraqi who had been allowed to stay in the UK.

She was working at a late night pizza shop when she texted her father saying that he had threatened her.

The pizza shop owner dropped her off at 5.20am near her home in Port Clarence, but then Bayez emerged from an alleyway.

Mr Knox added: "There was a good deal of trouble and argument and he pushed, shoved and dragged her into the street behind.

"A woman neighbour saw her being pushed into a car which Bayez had borrowed from a friend. The car drove off to an address in Middlesbrough which was the home of a couple who were friends of the defendant.

"At one stage she thought that he was going to drive the car off the Newport Bridge."

Bayez took her to the house where later a taxi was called to take her home.

She had marks on her arms, thigh and knees, and Bayez accepted that he aggressively harassed her and generally caused her considerable distress and upset, said Mr Knox.

Earlier Miss Clough, mother of a two-year-old girl, had texted her father The text read: "Dad, he has just batted me. I'm in a car, I don't know where he is taking me."

Bayez claimed that she had gone voluntarily. He had been in custody for four-and-a-half months since the incident.

Nigel Soppitt, defending, said that Bayez accepted that the relationship was over. Emotions ran high on the night and Bayez was sorry for the way things turned out.

Judge Tony Briggs told him:"It was clearly upsetting, frightening for her.

"You are a large and powerful man, and far more powerful than she is, and it is against a background of previous rows between you. If there is any further trouble of this nature you will face a further sentence of imprisonment if it is proved against you."

Bayez of Costa Street, Middlesbrough, was jailed for six months and given eight penalty points after he pleaded guilty to actual bodily harm and driving without insurance and a licence.

He denied a charge of kidnap which was accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service, and a formal not guilty verdict was recorded.