A MAN who led police on a high speed chase after officers tried to question him about his disabled badge has been jailed.

David Bourke, 24, had been disqualified from driving less than a month, Oxford Crown Court heard.

The sentencing hearing was told how the two officers who approached Bourke's parked Mercedes managed to escape serious injury by leaping out of the way as he reversed at speed out of the bay and made his getaway.

What ensued was a high-speed pursuit through the streets of Oxford before Bourke was eventually forced to stop.

He then refused to take a roadside test, following the incident in December 2017.

Bourke, who gave the court a home address in Southend-on-Sea, pleaded guilty to one count of dangerous driving, one count of driving while disqualified.

He was also found not guilty of one count of theft pertaining to a blue disabled badge.

The sentencing hearing on Thursday heard how Bourke's mental health had seriously been affected by two separate attacks in which he had been stabbed multiple times.

Sentencing judge Maria Lamb said she had taken this into account when considering the sentence to be imposed.

Judge Lamb said: "Just less than a month before you had been disqualified from driving for six months, which you were flagrantly breaching - if you had had any sort of accident then that would have had serious implications for anybody involved in that.

"You have in my view a cavalier approach to driving, it has been fortunate that this far your driving has not resulted in any harm to any other person, otherwise the sentence I would be imposing would be a great deal longer."

Bourke was sentenced to 12 months in prison and disqualified for driving for three years and six months.

Once the disqualification period has ended he will have to take an extended driving test.