Bruce Dewey, 36, was driving a blue Honda Legend on February 22 when he was spotted by officers from Sussex Police, who knew he only had a provisional licence.

He accelerated away from the police car in Tarring Road in Worthing, briefly losing it before being found on Exmoor Drive.

He carried on despite repeated requests to stop and was chased along Salvington Road and the A24, A4283 and A27.

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During this time a police car was damaged before he was stopped on the A27 at Sompting, damaging two more cars in the process.

Dewey, a labourer of no fixed address, appeared at Chichester Crown Court last month where he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence and driving without third party insurance.

He was jailed for 15 months, disqualified from driving for three years with a requirement to take an extended retest and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £100.

PC Peter De Silvo from the Surrey and Sussex Roads Policing Unit said: “Thankfully, nobody was injured in this incident, which was not conducted at high speed, but Dewey’s actions in trying to avoid police through a busy Monday evening rush hour could have had disastrous consequences.

“For nearly 50 minutes he refused to stop for police units, avoided stop sticks deployed to try and burst his tyres and at one point called 999 and asked us to stop following him.”