A DRUG dealer has been jailed after he fled police in a high-speed car chase while he was out on bail for dealing cannabis.

Elliot Clark, 23, of no fixed abode, was jailed for 21 months for dealing drugs in the centre of Oxford and then failing to stop when officers flagged him down just one month later.

Oxford Crown Court heard on Tuesday how Clark had been spotted by a member of the public at Oxford’s Bonn Square on October 3 last year taking £10 notes from passers-by and then retrieving small bags concealed in a gutter.

He was arrested and it was discovered that he had been supplying cannabis and had about 40 bags stashed away.

Just one month later on November 1 while on bail for the offence officers tried to stop his blue Mercedes car at The Slade, Oxford, but he sped off.

He drove towards East Oxford and along Southfield Road, and it was then that officers gave up the chase deciding it was ‘too dangerous’ to pursue, with him driving about 60mph on the narrow residential road.

Eventually he was stopped after abandoning the car and later arrested.

In sentencing, Recorder John Ryder QC said: “You are a serial offender involved in low level circulation of drugs.

“You also drove a motor vehicle in such a way which constitutes a danger to the public. If you will not control yourself you must be controlled.

“And the only available option seems to be long periods of imprisonment.”

Clark has 17 previous convictions for 29 offences the court heard.

In mitigation, Ronan McCann, defending, revealed a history of abuse as a child, as well as a life spent living in care, and committing numerous crimes from a young age.

For the drugs offence he was given 11 months in prison, and for dangerous driving he was jailed for 10 months, to run consecutively.