A DRIVER hit speeds of 120mph during a police chase on wet city roads, a court was told.

Ricki Williams, 24, was banned from driving for a year yesterday after speeding away from traffic officers in a BMW on the A4042 in Newport in January 2013, Cwmbran Magistrates’ Court heard.

When officers managed to pull him over, he said he was speeding to get home because he was tagged.

Williams was banned for 12 months for disqualified driving in 2010 and received another one-year ban last June for drink driving, the court heard.

“It is such a horrible high speed,” said magistrate Mohammed Miah , who described it as “off the scale”.

Williams was given a fresh 12-month ban and fined £400, plus £125 in costs and a surcharge.

Sgt Carolyne Jeffries told the court how her colleagues were forced to drive at 130mph to catch up with him on the A4042 on the evening of January 11 last year.

Williams kept accelerating on the wet dual carriageway and one of the officers in the marked police car said: “He’s going for it.”

The chase unfolded just before 10pm as Williams drove the BMW convertible between Cwmbran and Newport. Police passed Malpas Road and the Grove Park roundabout during the pursuit, and finally managed to stop him at the Harlequin roundabout in Crindau, Sgt Jeffries said.

Police footage showed his average speed was 90mph. The maximum speed limit on the dual carriageway is 70mph.

When officers quizzed him, he said: “I was just trying to get home because of my tag.”

Williams, formerly of Conway Road, Newport, is currently in custody at Parc Prison in Bridgend, but did not attend.

He was charged with one count of speeding in a 70mph zone and a further count of driving a BMW without a licence. Both cases were proven in his absence.