A banned motorist who led police on a high speed chase was finally caught by a passing cyclist as he fled from the crashed stolen car.

Claude Denham went out and stole the vehicle after his mum decided she had enough of his behaviour and threw him out of home.

And the following night the 20-year-old raced away from police with the lights turned off and two passengers in the car before crashing and running away.

One of the cops gave chase and called out to the passer by to help apprehend Denham as he ran off along a Chippenham road.

Tessa Hingston, prosecuting, told Swindon crown court how a Vauxhall Corsa was stolen from outside a house on the night Tuesday August 31 into the following morning.

During the day the court was told the car was driven to Malmesbury where it was seen driving dangerously along narrow roads putting people running along the lane at risk.

Miss Hingston said shortly before 9pm on the Wednesday an officer spotted the vehicle in the Bath Road car park in Chippenham town centre and gave chase.

She said the pursuit went out of town to the Bumpers Farm roundabout, all the time with the lights out, where the car headed back along Bristol Road.

The car was going about 70mph in a 40mph zone then without braking turned sharp into Middlefield Road where he hit a traffic island and lost control crashing into a parked car.

The driver, female front seat passenger and man in the back of the Corsa all leapt from the vehicle and ran from the scene.

Miss Hingston said “The officer proceeded to run after the defendant and told him to stop and stand still.

“The officer somewhat unusually asked a man on a bicycle to try and knock the man to the ground.”

She said he did so and the driver, who continued to struggle, was detained after the officer used his parva spray on him.

Denham, of no fixed abode but formerly of Easton, Corsham, pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking, driving while disqualified and without insurance and a licence.

The court heard he had a long history of car crime and was jailed in September last year for similar offences.

Jason Taylor, defending, said his client accepted he faced a lengthy jail term for what he had done.

He said he had a ‘terribly miserable childhood’, left school at the age of thirteen because of his behaviour without any qualifications and in the past was suspected of suffering from Asperger’s Syndrome.

“The reason he behaved in this way was because of an argument with his mother. She felt she had to ask him to leave the house not just for the night but for good,” he said.

Passing sentence Judge Euan Ambrose said “This was a bad pieced of driving. It is possible to imagine worse but that does not diminish the fact that it was among the worst type of driving.”

He jailed him for 14 moths and banned him from the road for three years and until he passes an extended test.