A MAN was blasted as a “public menace” by a judge after he sped at 50mph in 20mph zone during a police car chase.

Damien Luce, 26, fled from officers after they spotted the disqualified driver in a Ford Fiesta in Cwmbran in the early hours of the morning.

The car was found in flames near houses after it rolled down an embankment following a crash with another car, prosecutor Harriet Ealdon said.

Luce managed to escape from the police after they stood down the pursuit “to protect public safety”.

But the defendant was arrested shortly after at the block of flats where he lived at Monnow Court in the Thornhill area of Cwmbran.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and driving with no insurance.

The offending took place on Saturday, March 23 and when the defendant had three passengers in the car.

Luce has 19 previous convictions for 62 offences.

These include four offences of dangerous driving and five for driving while disqualified.

The unemployed Luce is dyslexic and left school without any qualifications, Newport Crown Court was told.

His barrister Tom Roberts urged the judge to suspend his prison sentence because he claimed there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.

Recorder Andrew Hammond told the defendant: “You are a menace to your local community.

“Your driving was considered so dangerous that the police exercised their judgement and decided that they had to call off the pursuit in order to protect public safety.

“There was also the considerable expenditure, no doubt, in the use of a police helicopter and a police dog handler trying to find you.

"These offences are very significantly aggravated by your appalling record of previous convictions repeatedly for the same offences."

He added: “You are perhaps fortunate that the prosecution had no evidence that you damaged the car.

“The vehicle in fact ended up rolling down an embankment on fire where it caused damage to some gardens and placed some residential properties at risk.

“The prosecution are not in a position to prove that that was a result of your driving, you having evaded the police by then.”

Luce was jailed for 16 months and banned from driving for five years and six months.

He will have to sit an extended retest if he wants to regain his driving licence.