A DISQUALIFIED driver tried to speed away from police but ended up reversing into another car as they blocked him in a petrol station.

Jack Luckham was handed a driving ban in May but flouted it within a few weeks by getting behind a wheel of a Renault Laguna.

The trained mechanic works casually with a friend fixing up cars and needed to fill the vehicle with petrol.

He drove to the Jet service station in Long Road, Lawford, when he was spotted by police.

Officers had driven past the car and noticed it was on their records as having no insurance nor a valid MOT certificate.

They blocked the exit of the petrol station to stop Luckham leaving but he tried to get away by driving through the pumps and ended up pranging another vehicle during his botched escape attempt.

He refused to provide a breath sample so officers were unable to test whether he was drink driving.

The 20-year-old, of St Osyth Road, Clacton, admitted failing to provide a specimen, driving without insurance and driving while disqualified at Colchester Magistrates’ Court.

Selena Dines, mitigating, said Luckham had not thought about an extra charge and just wanted to be uncooperative with police when he did not consent to a breath test.

“He buys cars and fixes them up as part of a business with his friend,” she said.

“After he was banned he stopped driving but continued working on them.

“On this particular occasion, the vehicle needed fuel and he thought to himself ‘I don’t really want to drive but I will.’

“The decision was stupid and rash.

“He told me he had not been drinking alcohol but was protesting his arrest and the fact he was taken to custody in Basildon.

“He wanted to be uncooperative with police because he felt they were being uncooperative with him.”

Magistrates heard he had only completely 22 out of 150 hours unpaid work he had previously been sentenced to.

Luckham, who also works part time at a car wash, told the probation service he was worried how his mother would cope if he was jailed.

But the bench decided to hand him eight weeks in detention.

He is also now banned from driving for three years.

Chariman of the bench Anthony Ealden said: “You drove while disqualified, tried to evade police and damaged another car.

“All of this while you were already on a community order and you have barely completed any hours of your unpaid work.”