A CAR salesman has been jailed for dangerous driving after a six-mile police pursuit with a terrified passenger saw him reach speeds of 120mph on the A483 in Wrexham.

Wayne Anthony Lloyd, 33, was told by a judge that his behaviour had been “far too serious” to enable him to draw back from immediate custody.

Lloyd had picked up Lorna Bryn, shortly after 4am on April 14 having met her earlier that evening when she was on a night out in Wrexham town centre.

She had been staying at the Premier Inn hotel, just off Mold Road, and agreed to go for a drive with Lloyd, who immediately attracted the attention of police, due to the nature of his erratic driving.

Mold Crown Court heard how Lloyd had been seen to “repeatedly” cross the centre line of the road and as he turned onto the A483 slip road, the police officer signalled for him to stop by illuminating his blue lights.

Lloyd ignored the police and instead put his foot down, travelling at speeds exceeding 100mph in the section of the road restricted to 50mph.

Simon Mintz, prosecuting, said how Ms Bryn became frightened and asked Lloyd to stop but he refused, telling her he couldn’t because he had been drinking.

He instead chose to drive even faster, weaving from side to side as he reached a top speed of 120mph, before he exited the carriageway at the Rossett turn off.

The police pursuit continued as Lloyd headed towards the village, where he travelled at speeds of 70mph, crossing three roundabouts, before entering Rossett at more than 50mph, despite the speed limit being just 20mph.

Mr Mintz explained how Lloyd then forced his way between an oncoming vehicle and a parked car, and while doing so, clipped the stationary vehicle, which resulted in him coming to a stop “in a cloud of dust” on a nearby grass verge.

Lloyd shouted at the woman to run from the scene, but she decided to stay in the van as he ran away, making his escape, despite it taking him several attempts to climb over a six foot high hedge.

It was almost two hours later that police arrived at the home address of Lloyd, who was the registered keeper of he vehicle, and he initially refused to provide them with a sample of his breath, telling them he had been drinking just ten minutes previously.

Lloyd did eventually provide them with two breath samples and although both did slightly exceed the drink drive limit, neither was high enough to enable him to be charged with that particular offence.

Police analysis of his mobile phone revealed messages sent to another woman between 5-5.30am, telling her he could hear the police helicopter and if she could come and pick him up from the Griffin Pub, where he was a hiding in the beer garden.

John Hedgecoe, defending, said his client had entered a timely, guilty plea and had demonstrated remorse, which he said was partly down to the effect that any custodial sentence would have on his future employment, having recently secured a job as a car salesman.

Judge Rowlands said it had been fortunate that nobody had been hurt or killed.

He said: “This was a case of deliberate bad driving, carried out because you were afraid you’d be over the drink drive limit.

“You travelled at grossly excessive speeds. The passenger with you was understandably very frightened.”

Lloyd was sentenced to serve 30 weeks in prison. He was also banned from driving for 18 months plus another 15 weeks.