A BANNED driver was double the drink-drive limit when he rammed two police cars in a bid to escape arrest, a court was told yesterday.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Robert Lee, 39, was driving a car without lights at 11pm in Newport Road, Middlesbrough, when a police traffic car tried to stop him.

He ignored the flashing lights and sirens and drove over a roundabout at 60 miles an hour before driving into the side of a patrol car when it tried to block him.

Lee, from Hemlington, collided with another police car and braked hard in Low Lane, Thornaby, causing the police vehicle to collide with him. He ran off but was arrested.

Paul Newcombe, prosecuting, said Lee had described himself the next day as hung-over. "He said that the incident passed by in a blur but he knew that the police were in pursuit," said Mr Newcombe.

Christine Egerton, mitigating, said that Lee, a carer for his father, had apologised to the police. She said he had been taking medication and should not have been drinking.

Judge Les Spittle told Lee: "It is only by the purest good luck that no other person was killed by your driving, police vehicles were rammed by you and clearly you were determined to get away no matter what the cost was to property and people."

Lee, of Arkendale, was jailed for 21 months and disqualified from driving for six years after admitting dangerous driving and driving while disqualified on June 9.