A MAN has been jailed after a police car chase in the city centre ended with his car crashing into a wall.

The dramatic chase began near the Oxford Crown Court building in Speedwell Street on the night of February 15, when police officers spotted a black Vauxhall Astra parked near Tesco Express and signalled for it to stop.

Instead of pulling over, the driver, Mustafa Mohammed, 21, sped off and squeezed through a queue of cars waiting at a red light before mounting the pavement and driving up St Aldate's Road at about 40mph.

The crown court heard on Thursday how police immediately gave chase and followed Mohammed through the busy city centre streets at about 10pm.

Mohammed continued driving 'erratically' according to police before turning the wrong way into Queen Street, and then on to New Road and Castle Street.

He then went back along Queen Street and again on to St Aldate’s, forcing his way at speed in between two cars which were parked at a red light.

The chase only came to an end when seconds later Mohammed crashed into a stone wall, and on fleeing the wreckage he was stopped by officers who found two bags of cannabis on his person.

After he was charged, the court heard, he claimed that he had driven the wrong way because ‘he didn't know what the signs meant’ having not yet passed his driving test.

On sentencing Mohammed, Recorder Anna Laney ordered that he should serve eight months behind bars for the ‘reckless’ driving which ‘put lives at risk.’

She said: “This created a substantial risk of injury. It was a miracle no one was killed that night or injured.

“It is incredibly lucky you are not here facing a much more serious charge. You were driving badly around a busy city centre, you had no idea what roads you were on or where you had been.

“What you did that night was stupid and reckless and utterly immature. It is a miracle no one was hurt let alone yourself."

Defending, Peter Defoe, said in mitigation: “He realises this is all his fault and wants to apologise for what he did that day.

“Because the driving was appalling and it was only brought to an end by his own inability to control the car.

“He is very lucky and so is everybody else that nobody was hurt. Going through a red light and driving on these streets at speed through the centre of Oxford. He and everybody else is very lucky.”

Mohammed, of no fixed abode, appeared via a videolink from Nottinghamshire's HMP Ranby, and was jailed for eight months for dangerous driving and disqualified from driving for two years.

For possessing cannabis he was given eight days in prison to run concurrently.