A DANGEROUS driver who led police on a high-speed chase after snorting cocaine has been jailed.

Leon John raced at 110mph along the M4 in Newport before he was eventually brought to a stop by officers 25 miles away.

He led them on a pursuit in wet conditions during the early hours of the morning last Halloween through Cardiff and the A470 towards Merthyr Tydfil.

The 32-year-old was arrested in Nelson in Caerphilly county after a police stinger shredded the tyres of his BMW 1 Series car.

John was by this stage driving on the rims of his wheels because the tyres were completely flat.

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After he was taken into custody, John gave positive drug tests for cocaine and the cocaine derivative benzoylecgonine.

John was six times over the legal limit for benzoylecgonine, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

Martha Smith-Higgins, prosecuting, said: “This is about as serious a case as you can get for dangerous driving.”

John was also being sentenced for another case of dangerous driving committed in Taff's Well this month which left a pursuing police officer with whiplash following a crash and driving while disqualified and using a false number plate in the Lisvane area of Cardiff in February.

He admitted dangerous driving, drug driving, failing to stop, failing to provide a specimen, fraudulently using a registration mark, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance.

He has 34 previous convictions for a total of 66 offences, including dangerous driving, drug driving and driving while disqualified.

John’s lawyer Darren Bishop asked the court to give his client full credit for his early guilty pleas.

The judge, Recorder Victoria Hillier, jailed John for 26 months and told him he would serve half that sentence in prison before being released on licence.

The defendant, of Hartshorn Court, Lansbury Park, Caerphilly, was banned from driving for six years.

He was ordered to pay a surcharge following his release from custody.