A rogue motorist who led police on dangerous chase through the streets of Newcastle has been jailed.
Illegal immigrant Valentino Kucana was behind the wheel of a BMW which was spotted driving erratically and when police tried to pull him over, he sparked a high speed chase during which he ran red lights before crashing.
Now Albanian Kucana, 28, of Redewater Road, Fenham, Newcastle, who has been "served with the relevant papers by Border Force", has been locked up for nine months for dangerous driving.
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Newcastle Crown Court heard it was around 2.10am on March 3 this year that a police officer saw a black BMW driving erratically, speeding up then slowing down, on the A167, in Newcastle. When the officer indicated for it to pull over, Kucana initially slowed to 10mph before accelerating away onto Grandstand Road.
After reaching more than 60mph the car started to fish tail then drove through a red light on Barrack Road and sped through a 20mph residential area in Fenham. He went through another red light on Westgate Road, lost control on numerous occasions before crashing at a junction. He then tried to escape on foot but was chased and arrested.
Kucana pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, having no insurance and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence and was jailed for nine months and banned from driving for two years.
Judge Sarah Mallett told him: "On a number of occasions in that four minutes you lost control. You were driving at substantially above the speed limit and you lost control and went through a red light at 60mph and drove at twice the limt in a residential area, drove through a further red light and drove over a give way junction at speed after turning your lights off, without slowing at all.
"Those are just examples of the way you drove over that period of time. You then crashed and got out and ran away.
"This was very bad driving. This took place at night in the dark and you were trying to escape from the police.
"You travelled through a build up area for part of the route and turned the lights off, increasing the risk yet further to road users and pedestrians."
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