A FLEEING driver rammed a police car and hit speeds of up to 100 miles per hour as he attempted to escape police in Hereford.

Morgan James Marshall Stanley entered a guilty plea when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford.

Police had decided to follow Stanley after they spotted him driving an Audi A6 "at speed" in Hinton, Hereford, at 11.30pm on August 20, prosecutor Ralph Robyns Landricombe said.

But Stanley continued to break the speed limit, travelling at 45 miles per hour in a 30 zone, and reaching up to 50 miles per hour as police chased him through Hunderton with their lights and sirens on.

Stanley then turned into a dead end in the Golden Post area of the city, before putting his car into reverse, ramming the following police car, and driving off towards Belmont.

Backup police units were called out as the chase continued on the A465, with 32-year-old Stanley hitting speeds of 100 miles per hour and crossing white lines as he attempted to escape the police, turning on to the B4368 and then the A466, where a stinger had been laid across the road by police.

But as Stanley reached Llancloudy, the court heard he left the carriageway, briefly getting the car back on the road before again losing control and coming to a stop in the road, bringing the 15 mile chase to an end.

Stanley, who had two young passengers in the car and failed a roadside drug test, was arrested. An evidential blood test revealed he had 380 microgrammes of cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine per litre of blood. The legal limit is 50.

He told police he was the one who had crashed the car and that he had "smashed into the police car hoping the airbags would go off."

In interview, Stanley, who does not have a driving licence, said he had been carrying prescribed Tramadol tablets and that he had panicked when he saw the police car.

He admitted speeding, reversing his car in a bid to escape, and that his driving had been dangerous.

"This was prolonged driving and a deliberate disregard for other road users," Mr Robyns Landricombe said.

Stanley, of Merestone Road, Hereford, was handed an interim disqualification from driving and will appear at Worcester Crown Court for sentencing at 10am on March 19.