A DRINK-DRIVER who rammed police cars and escaped four times from road traps was ordered to have psychiatric treatment yesterday.

Malcolm Carter, 36, led three police cars on a long high-speed chase in his J-registered Vauxhall Cavalier.

He reversed away when police first spotted him near his home on the Easterside estate, Middlesbrough, said Val McMinn, prosecuting.

He reached 70mph on the wrong side of the road and drove the wrong way around a roundabout.

During a lengthy pursuit around the Middlesbrough area, police boxed him in four times, but two officers who approached him on foot had to jump to safety as he drove at them, Teesside magistrates were told.

Carter rammed one police car and then he reversed into another. The officers got out and they pulled him from the Cavalier, said Mrs McMinn.

Carter did not have a driving licence and he failed to provide a breath specimen.

Carter of Broadwell Road, Middlesbrough, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving on September 3, failing to stop for police and failing to provide a breath specimen.

The magistrates had reports from a psychiatrist and a senior probation officer.

Colin Sleeman, representing Carter, said he had been banned from driving as a condition of his bail and he had also lost his job.

He said: "He feels that a probation order with psychiatric treatment would be a fair way of dealing with him."

Carter was put on probation for two years and ordered to receive psychiatric care. He was banned for 18 months and must pass an extended driving test before driving again