A couple watching TV at home were left stunned when a car smashed through a 20ft tree in their front garden and stopped inches from their porch.

Michael Stone was in the living room with his wife when they heard an almighty crash just before midnight on a rainy night shortly before Christmas.

MORE NEWS: Would you pay £850,000 for this 17-BEDROOM house on sale in central Swindon?

MORE NEWS: Bungled raid at car wash nets burglars just £59

MORE NEWS: Sisters in Wroughton take on dog fouling with own dog poo bag dispensers.

And when he went to investigate he couldn’t open the porch door because a Ford Fiesta which had been in a police chase was pressed up against it.

Now 25-year-old Londoner Bernard Sindano, who had only just come back from a driving ban and insists he was not up to no good, has been jailed.

Alex Daymond, prosecuting, told Swindon Crown Court how about half an hour earlier officers had been called to an alarm going off at Costcutter on Hobley Drive.

When they arrived at 11.30pm on Thursday December 20 they saw the red car pulling away and checks found the number plate didn’t match the vehicle.

He said they had followed the on Ermin Street and tried to carry out a tactical stop near Kingsdown crossroads.

As one police car pulled in front and another behind the Fiesta reversed, then shot away through a red light.

It then turned down Ridgeway Road on to Hathaway Road on to Beechcroft Road and Kingsdown Road towards Highworth.

As well as going the wrong way round a roundabout it went at speeds of up to 90mph in a 40mph zone in the rain.

After going through Highworth on the Lechlade Road it turned on to Round Hills Mead before smashing in to the magnolia tree on Priory Green.

Sindano, of Walthamstow, East London, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and with a false number plate.

The court heard he was banned for drink-driving in June 2017 and only got his licence back about five weeks before the incident.

Probation officer Jackie Reynolds said he told her he had a diploma in engineering and was now working for bookies Paddy Power. On the day of the offence he told her he was driving home from Bristol, felt tired, so pulled off the motorway for a rest.

She said he insisted that he had nothing to do with the alarm going off and simply panicked when he saw the police.

Richard Williams, defending, said his client was sorry for what he had done and wanted to make it clear he had not been drinking, taking drugs, or involved in the alarm going off.

Jailing him for a year and banning him for three Judge Jason Taylor QC said “You had no regard at all for the safety of other road users or pedestrians that may have been out and about.”

He told him “You were followed by a car with blue lights in heavily built up area at high speeds up to 90mph, also going round a roundabout the wrong way.”