A BANNED driver involved in a high-speed police chase after he spent time in jail for dangerous driving was told he has "learned nothing" by a judge.

Jailing Aaron Javed again for 14 months, Recorder Sarah Johnson said: "You are remorseful but you are always sorry after the event.

"Mr Javed, the public are tired of reading about young men, such as yourself, driving in circumstances where the public are put at repeated risks of danger."

Bolton Crown Court heard how, at 6.30pm on October 4, 2020, 22-year-old Javed was spotted by police behind the wheel of a Honda CRV on Harrowby Street, Farnworth. The officer recognised him as he has previously arrested him for driving offences.

Javed refused to stop and led police on a 10 minute pursuit through narrow residential roads in Farnworth and Harper Green, reaching speeds of up to 80mph in 30mph areas.

Alexandra Sutton, prosecuting, said Javed failed to give way at junctions, went through a no entry sign, caused other road users to swerve out of the way and overtook an ambulance in the opposite lane.

On Harper Green Road he drove head-on towards a police car, forcing the officer to turn left and onto a kerb to avoid a collision.

A passenger got out of the Honda and Javed carried on driving but police, deeming it too dangerous to continue, ended the pursuit.

A short time later police were flagged down by a member of the public who directed them towards where the Honda had been abandoned and the keys thrown into a nearby garden. Javed, of Musgrave Gardens, Bolton, was caught and arrested.

A drugs test revealed that Javed had been using cannabis and cocaine but the court heard that he was not charged with drug driving or driving whilst banned in time for the charges to be put before the court.

Javed pleaded guilty to dangerous driving but then failed to turn up to court for his original sentencing hearing.

The court heard how Javed already had eight convictions for 14 offences including drink driving, driving whilst banned and dangerous driving, for which he was sentenced to eight months in prison and banned from holding a licence for two years.

He was released from prison just 13 months before his latest offences were committed.

Nicholas Ross, defending, stated: "He concedes what he did was extremely foolish. He is profoundly sorry."

He told the court how Javed had been test driving the Honda, which he was considering buying from a friend, at the time and described the defendant as "naive".

But he stressed that Javed, who was taken into care at the age of 12, has now had time to have a "good think" about his behaviour and that his latest conviction has been a salutory lesson for him.

Recorder Johnson told Javed: "Over the course of that driving there were countless opportunities for serious harm to be caused.

"You put your own safety at risk. You put the safety of your passenger at risk, the officers who were in your pursuit and countless members of the public.

"It is right to observe that that pursuit, in fact, came to an end not through any of your actions but because the pursuing officer decided rightly that it had become so dangerous that it should not continue."

Javed was banned from applying for a driving licence for three years and six months.