A DRINK driver has been jailed for eight months after a high-speed police chase through Wickford.

Ty Madden, 24, of Stevenson Way, Wickford, was twice the legal drink-drive limit – 72 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 ml of breath – when he was involved in a smash at the junction of Runwell Road and Station Approach, Wickford.

He drove off from the scene at about 6am on January 16.

Officers tracked the red Ford Focus he was driving to Wickford High Street and when they tried to stop him, he smashed into their car and a grey Ford Focus.

He was arrested, and at Basildon Magistrates’ Court admitted drink-driving, failing to stop and five counts of breaching a suspended sentence.

Madden had breached suspended sentences handed to him for two charges of assault in Rayleigh on November 30, 2013 and one count of criminal damage by smashing a window at the Crown pub, Rayleigh, on January 27, 2015.

He was also in breach of a suspended sentence for possession of a knife in Billericay on January 27, 2015.

Madden was handed 12 weeks in jail for drink-driving, four weeks for failing to stop and 16 weeks for breaching the three suspended sentences.