A TEENAGE motorist from Trowbridge who smashed into another car as he tried to escape police has been jailed for a year.

Richard Watts, of Westmead Crescent, who has never passed a test and had just come off a driving ban, had been drinking when he sped away from officers on January 23.

Swindon Crown Court heard the 19-year-old drove through Trow-bridge town centre at over 70mph, went the wrong way down a one-way street before heading towards Southwick along Frome Road.

He was finally halted when he clipped one car, in which was a father and his four-year-old child, and ploughed into another.

Jane Warren, prosecuting, said Watts, a provisional licence holder, had convictions for motoring offences and was banned from the road for six months in September 2002 and a year in January 2003.

At an earlier hearing he admitted dangerous driving, and driving without insurance or a licence.

James Wilson-Smith, defending, said his client panicked when he saw the police car because he knew he should not be driving. He said Watts accepted the quality of his driving was at fault but maintained he had not been drinking.

Jailing him, Recorder Ian Lawrie said: "It is a miracle no-one was seriously injured or killed. You could be responsible for the death of a four-and-a half year old child."

Watts was also banned from driving for two years and ordered to sit an extended test before getting a licence.