A DANGEROUS driver sped at 92mph in a 30mph zone through residential streets during a police chase that continued on to a motorway.

Joshua Southwell, 26, led officers on a pursuit through the Chepstow Road area of Newport that eventually ended on the M4 in the city.

The Nissan Note he was driving was brought to halt when police used a stinger device to deflate its tyres.

This happened during the early hours of Sunday, September 18, 2022, Ben Jones, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court.

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Disqualified driver Southwell had been “undertaking other cars on the motorway by using the hard shoulder and swerving in and out of traffic” during the high-speed chase.

The defendant has previous convictions for dangerous driving and driving while disqualified driver and was jailed four years ago.

Southwell was also being sentenced for a second dangerous driving offence that involved another police pursuit.

This happened in the Abertillery area on the night of Thursday, October 10 when he reached a speed of 100mph on the A467 whilst at the wheel of a Ford Focus.

“The defendant was driving on the wrong side of the road causing other drivers to brake sharply,” Mr Jones said.

“At one point he turned off his lights in the dark.”

Mr Jones said that the dangerous driving on both occasions had been “prolonged and persistent”.

When Southwell was arrested, officers found a meat cleaver beside him in the car.

The defendant, from Pontypool, admitted two counts of dangerous driving, two of driving whilst disqualified, one of possession of a bladed article in public, failing to provide a specimen, failing to surrender, driving with no insurance and causing criminal damage to a woman’s kitchen in Cwmbran on September 18, 2022.

Alice Sykes representing Southwell said his best mitigation was his guilty pleas.

She added that her client had suffered person bereavement following the death of his mother.

Judge Eugene Egan told the defendant: “You have a very poor record for driving and relevant previous convictions.”

Southwell was jailed for 21 months and told he would serve half of that sentence in custody before being released on licence.

He will be banned from driving for three years after leaving prison and he was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge.

The defendant was made the subject of a 10-year restraining order not to contact the victim of the criminal damage.