A DRIVER who led police on a 130mph chase across Dorset has been spared jail.

 

Anthony Hutchinson, 25, was spotted by a patrolling police officer speeding in a blue Audi westbound on the A35 near Bere Regis at just after 1am on April 5 this year.

 

He had been disqualified from driving only weeks before.

 

Prosecutor Kerry Maylin told Bournemouth Crown Court that the Audi had been keeping pace with a Mercedes which later turned off, and the officer had to accelerate to 90mph to keep them in sight as they entered the Puddletown Bypass.

 

She said Hutchinson was travelling with his lights on full beam, blinding motorists in the opposite lane, as the car accelerated to 120mph.

 

Police activated their lights and signalled for the vehicle to stop where the dual carriageway came to an end, and at first the Audi slowed and pulled into a layby.

 

Then Hutchinson, of Keeble Road, Bournemouth, pulled away at speed in the opposite direction. As he approached Bere Regis on the return journey he accelerated to 130mph.

 

The court heard that police trailed the defendant onto the A31 towards Corfe Mullen, and for part of the journey he switched the car’s lights off. Near Wimborne he crashed into a brick wall and fled on foot, but was found by officers hiding in a shed.

 

Hutchinson admitted offences of dangerous driving, driving while disqualified and failing to provide a specimen.

 

In mitigation, Kevin Hill said: “Mr Hutchinson said to the probation officer it could have gone horribly wrong. He says the way he was driving was silly. I know from speaking to him that is very much an understatement.”

 

He said driving was, to his client, “one of the only things in his life he is able to be good at and enjoys”.

 

Judge Brian Forster QC issued a 10 month jail term suspended for 18 months, with 120 hours unpaid work and a curfew. Hutchinson was also banned from driving for three years.

 

The judge told him: “I must stress that your driving put everybody at risk.

 

“Anybody who drives in this way in roads in this area must expect to have their offending marked with a sentence of imprisonment.”