A rampaging driver had a near miss near a primary school then smashed his Renault Clio into an oncoming van.

Jesse Billingham, 23, fled the scene but was soon nicked by pursuing police officers. Taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, he refused to provide a blood sample and screamed that the cops with him were ‘****s’.

Prosecutor Julian Lynch told Oxford Crown Court on Thursday that police officers were patrolling Didcot on April 20 as part of an operation targeting potential drug dealers.

At around 3.40pm, a sergeant illuminated his panda car’s blue lights and pulled in front of Billingham’s Renault Clio on Sir Frank Williams Avenue.

Billingham mounted the kerb, manoeuvred his Clio around the police car and sped off.

The ensuing five-and-a-half mile chase saw the uninsured driver go the wrong-way around roundabouts, ignored oncoming traffic as he overtook cars and reach high speeds.

Officers were so worried about potential risks to other drivers and pedestrians they called off the chase.

CCTV showed him almost clipping another car outside a primary school as he sped down the 30mph limit residential road.

In Long Wittenham he tried to turn right to cut through a line of queuing traffic. He misjudged the speed of another van – hitting it and another vehicle.

Billingham abandoned his Renault and ran. Police officers brought him to ground – helped by one of the drivers at the scene.

Sentencing him on Thursday, Recorder John Hardy QC said: “Members of the public viewing these pieces of CCTV footage and hearing the details of your escapade on April 20 this year would take the view that you richly deserve to go to prison.

“You know that. I take the same view.

“But what members of the public do not know is that you’ve attended Turning Point, which is a tough course.

“You’ve been cooperative in your attendance, you’ve been positive, you’ve been responsible. Between September 14 and October 19 on six successive occasions your drug test has shown that you are negative and you wish to volunteer to become a peer mentor.

“Your record is not particularly bad.”

He said he was ‘just’ prepared to impose a suspended sentence. But he added that he was increasing the sentence from 12 months’ imprisonment to 18 months suspended for two years to reflect the fact Billingham was not getting an immediate jail sentence.

After banning him from the roads for two years, Recorder Hardy told Billingham: “Get out of my court and don’t come back.”

Billingham, of Bonners Mead, Benson, pleaded guilty at the magistrates’ court in November to dangerous driving, driving without a licence or insurance and failing to stop at the scene of an accident.

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