A motorist who raced along residential roads at up to 80mph to escape police only stopped when he flipped the vehicle by crashing into a roundabout, a court has heard.

The prosecution claimed that 23-year-old Kieron Ratcliffe-Thompson, who was uninsured and didn't hold a valid licence, sped past a police patrol car on Halesowen Road in Netherton last August. Officers turned and followed him at 50mph before the defendant turned into a housing estate, ignoring the patrol car’s blue lights and siren. 

In camera footage shown to the court, the father-of-two was seen to go through red lights without slowing down to check for other traffic and on several occasions drove on the wrong side of the road. He headed for Cinder Bank reaching speeds of 80mph, with a pregnant woman in the passenger seat, when the officers called the chase off because of the chance of danger to other road users. Seconds later the Megane mounted a roundabout, sending it into a 360-degree somersault before landing on its wheels in the carriageway.

Ratcliffe-Thompson, of Victoria Street, Cradley Heath, was arrested him at the scene and pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving without insurance or a licence at Wolverhampton Crown Court. The court heard that the defendant had borrowed the car from a family friend, to 'show off' in front of his passenger.

Judge James Burbidge, QC, handed him a 10-month jail term but suspended it for two years, with a requirement to take part in a 30-day rehabilitation course. He also imposed a three-month curfew, from 9pm to 6am, and banned him from driving for 30 months.