A FORMER footballer who zoomed along the county’s streets in a high-speed police chase has been jailed.

Leon Caton, who had a provisional licence at the time, smashed into a tree after racing at speeds reaching 120mph in the cannabis-fuelled pursuit.

The 25-year-old was forced to abandon his dreams of a professional football career after a car crash left him needing a metal rod in his leg six years ago.

Sentencing at Oxford Crown Court, Judge Maria Lamb slammed Caton for his ‘appalling’ driving at ‘grossly excessive’ speeds and locked him up for 14 months.

She issued Caton – a driver for food delivery service HelloFresh – with a two-and-a-half year driving ban.

She said: “It really beggars belief that someone who themselves had the misfortune of being a victim of a serious car accident could drive in the way that you did. It is miraculous that you did not at least seriously injure, if not kill, other road users.”

A policeman was on the A4260, between Kidlington and Banbury, when he spotted Caton’s Volkswagen Golf travelling south at ‘considerable speed’ at about midnight on March 30 last year.

The speeding motorist was chased through Deddington, where he flouted 30mph speed limits and raced along the roads at 50mph.

He drove the wrong way around a roundabout at the junction between the A4260 and the A44, while two cyclists were nearby, before turning towards Woodstock.

The officer lost sight of Caton as he raced through Woodstock but spotted him later, chasing him along the A44 through Enstone and the B4022.

The pursuit saw Caton dashing across roads at 100mph in 60mph zones, prosecutor Cathy Olliver told the court on Wednesday. The officer was forced to zoom along at 120mph at one point during the chase, in an attempt to catch Caton, who must pay a victim surcharge.

Caton, who had 4.7 milligrams of cannabis in 100ml of blood which exceeded the legal limit of 2 milligrams, crashed into a tree soon after, claiming he was trying to avoid a deer. The court heard he had taken the cannabis within six to eight hours of the crash.

Defence barrister Lateef Folaranmi said Caton, who had 19 convictions for 25 offences, could not explain why he offended but deeply regretted it.

The qualified football coach, who already had six points on his licence, had been a keen local footballer before his 2011 accident and had been offered the chance to play in America. He struggled to come to terms with his shattered dreams after his life spiralled out of control, the barrister claimed.

Caton, of Harlequin Way, Banbury, admitted dangerous driving, driving whilst unfit through drugs, driving without insurance and driving otherwise in accordance with a licence.