A DRIVER who tried to avoid police by speeding the wrong way along a dual carriageway near Redditch at a horrifying 110mph has escaped being jailed.

Warwick Crown Court heard the car Jammile Brown was driving clipped the wing mirror of one oncoming car, but luckily other drivers managed to avoid him as he hurtled towards them.

He was arrested following a 22-minute high-speed chase beginning in Stratford and ending near the A435 junction with the M42.

Brown, aged 24, of Concorde Drive, Castle Vale, Birmingham, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, having no licence or insurance, and possessing cannabis.

He was sentenced to four months prison, suspended for two years, with 12 months supervision, and was ordered to take part in a Thinking Skills programme and disqualified from driving for three years.

Prosecutor Lal Amarasinghe said at 6.25pm on September 29 police were alerted to a green Ford Focus being driven by Brown in Stratford.

Officers in an unmarked car picked up the Focus as it headed away from Stratford along the A4300 towards Wootton Wawen, and began to follow it.

They lost the Focus but, with the help on the police helicopter, caught up with it again as it sped through Ullenhall at 60mph.

When he reached the junction with the main A435 near Redditch, Brown took a right turn at a no entry sign and headed north on the southbound carriageway.

As he sped against the flow of traffic at up to 110mph there were several near-collisions with on-coming vehicles whose drivers managed to take avoiding action – and the only damaged was to a VW van which had its wing mirror clipped.

Eventually the Focus was brought to a stop when it ran over a stinger mat the police had put down as it approached junction 3 of the M42.

Brown was arrested, and in the passenger door police found a small amount of herbal cannabis which he admitted was for his own use.

When he questioned about his driving Brown, who had no insurance and had had his provisional licence revoked, said he had panicked when he saw police because of the cannabis.

Recorder Patrick Upward QC said: “Driving of this kind, which plainly threatened the lives of innumerable people, plainly crosses the custody threshold.

“One slip of that steering wheel and you could be staring down 10 years’ imprisonment, maybe more.”

Brown’s grandfather had been allowed to sit in court rather than the public gallery, and was helped in by Brown before going into the dock.

And Recorder Upward added: “The reports suggest you have a sense of responsibility to your family; and one of the things I have in mind is the care you have adopted to your grandfather.  Don’t let him down.”