A DRIVER led police on a high-speed chase through Swindon in a rented car after dropping his mother at a funeral, magistrates heard.

Benjamin Nicholson’s Vauxhall Astra reached speeds of more than 90mph during the pursuit on November 22. He has now been banned from driving and will be sentenced by a judge at Swindon Crown Court.

Keith Ballinger, prosecuting, said police in Broadgreen saw the car driven by the defendant and tried to stop it in Frobisher Drive just after noon.

The driver refused to stop and an attempt to box the car in with police vehicles failed. Nicholson then headed to Queens Drive. “Officers say that he is accelerating away from them at speed.”

Speeds in the region of 68mph were recorded through the 30mph zone. At one point the driver was close to a primary school where the limit is 20mph.

In Shaftesbury Avenue speeds of up to 70mph were reached by police as they kept pace with the defendant, who was seen driving on the wrong side of the road going round a right-hand bend. Along Marlborough Road the speed was as high as 90mph.

“He is seen to undertake vehicles and go through traffic lights as they are changing from amber to red at more than 90mph,” said Mr Ballinger.

Driving towards Wanborough was forced to slow down by the driver of another car in front, allowing the police to box the Astra in. Taken back to the police station, where he gave a no comment interview, Nicholson tested positive for cannabis with a level of 4.9 microgrammes. The legal limit is 2.

Nicholson, of Lyndhurst Crescent, admitted dangerous driving and driving over the drug limit.

His solicitor, Ben Worthington, said: “He was in a rented vehicle. It seems the police wanted to stop him because they thought some suspicious activity was going on. He doesn’t know what it was.”

Mr Worthington explained the Broadgreen area was known to have a drug dealing problem but Nicholson was not there for that. He said. “He was dropping his mother off at a funeral. He thought they [the police] were aggressive and unfortunately for him he just panicked.

“He was concerned about the police stopping him and concerned about picking his mother up from the funeral later on.”

Nicholson had six points on his licence and had been driving for 11 years. In the past he had worked as a delivery driver although he wasn’t working at the moment.

Mr Worthington added: “He admits that he is a regular user of cannabis and accepts that he smoked it the day before.”