A 6ft 6in man who made headlines when he drove a small convertible Ford Ka while standing up has been jailed for a separate case of dangerous driving.

Car dealer Adam Elliott, of Newcastle, crashed his Ford Galaxy into a stationary bus and an oncoming vehicle during a police chase in Gateshead in March.

Prosecutors said the 26-year-old man sped away from officers and drove on the wrong side of the road before the collision.

He smashed into a car being driven by a woman who was with her children aged four and nine.

She said Elliott had tried to get through a gap that did not exist between her vehicle and the bus.


The crash was four days before he was due to be sentenced for driving an open-top Ford Ka while sitting on the head rest, steering with his knees and waving, near the Tyne Bridge in January 2016.

Image: Elliott has apologised for the Gateshead crash

He had initially claimed he was just too tall for the small car.

Judge Robert Adams was unaware of the Gateshead crash when he handed Elliott a suspended sentence because the driver fled the scene.

Elliott left a passenger there, and he was not arrested until May.

The judge has now handed Elliott a nine-month jail term, suspended for 18 months, at Newcastle Crown Court after he admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.

Elliott apologised, saying he had been driving despite an interim ban because he was trying to sell a car.

He told the court: "There is no justification for my actions in this incident.

"I don't want to try to justify them; what happened was wrong, it was a moment of foolishness."

The defendant was disqualified from driving for two years and nine months.