A CRUMLIN man who was chased by police for driving dangerously through Blackwood streets was jailed.

Shane Purnell, 25, of Plynlimon Avenue, Croespenmaen, pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to one count of dangerous driving, one count of driving whilst disqualified and a section 41 offence of driving without insurance.

He was driving dangerously around Ponllanfraith in Blackwood including on the B4241, Penmaen Road and Gelli-Groes Road.

The court was shown DVD footage from a police officer's car from June 16, 2014, of Purnell driving a black Nissan Pathfinder at around 11.03pm in Blackwood. The footage shows the police car following Purnell on Penmaen Road where they put their lights on at around 11.05pm.

Police chased Purnell's car for around three minutes on the A472 and Newport Road before stopping at 11.07pm at Gelli Lane where they arrested Purnell.

Nuhu Gobir, prosecuting, told the court that many of the streets which Purnell has been pursued by the police had a speed limit of 30mph. The footage showed Purnell's car travelling more than 50mph.

Mr Gobir said: "The defendant was spoken to by the officer and when they checked he was a disqualified driver and arrested him for failure to stop. In the interview he gave full admission for dangerous driving while disqualified and of course he had no insurance.

"The defendant has convictions of 66 offences in total including several motoring offences."

The court heard that on January 21, 2014, Purnell was given a suspended sentence of 14 weeks to be suspended for 18 months for driving whilst disqualified at a magistrates court.

He has been previously convicted for dangerous driving in 2006 and driving whilst disqualified in 2011 and 2012.

Steve Thomas, defending, said: "He did not drive on a footpath or in a park or anything like that, where members of the public would have been in danger.

"There was no damage to anything or persons in relation to his driving."

Recorder Eleri Rees, said: "You are 25 years old and have an appalling record which seems to be a problem with motor offences. On this occasion you have been very lucky as you were driving on main roads, going over junctions, that no one got hurt or nothing was damaged."

Judge Rees sentenced Purnell to 20 weeks imprisonment for the offence of dangerous driving and driving whilst disqualified which will run concurrently. His suspended sentence of 14 weeks has been implemented to run consecutively. Purnell will serve 34 weeks in total in prison.

He will be disqualified from driving for 11 months and will have to take an extensive driving test.