A DISQUALIFIED driver who has been in prison every year for the last 17 years is today beginning another jail term.John Baxter, 32, drove a Metro car at speeds of 60 miles per hour around Holbrook's 30 miles per hour roads before crashing into trees at Primrose Hill.

A DISQUALIFIED driver who has been in prison every year for the last 17 years is today beginning another jail term.

John Baxter, 32, drove a Metro car at speeds of 60 miles per hour around Holbrook's 30 miles per hour roads before crashing into trees at Primrose Hill.

Ipswich Crown Court heard that despite Baxter injuring his nose on the steering wheel and police trying to break the car window with a baton and spraying CS gas into the hatch door, Baxter tried to drive away the car and his two passengers.

Rupert Overbury, prosecuting, said the Metro was "extensively damaged" at the front but Baxter reversed over a hedge and rocked the car backwards and forwards, damaging a police car in a bid to escape.

Police said Baxter, of Kingsland, Shotley, made off along the Ipswich Road, driving erratically and sometimes on the wrong side of the road until he came to a dirt track to Grove Farm.

The court heard that the car stopped and its occupants ran off. A police helicopter with thermal imaging equipment traced the men and Baxter was arrested.

Baxter, who has 21 convictions for 67 offences over the last 17 years, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, criminal damage and having no insurance.

Amanda Rippon, for Baxter, said: "There does not seem to be a single year since he was 15 when he has not spent some time in custody."

She asked Judge John Holt to help Baxter break the cycle of offending by sentencing him to a rehabilitation order with added support.

Judge Holt said the pre-sentence report showed that Baxter was at high risk of re-offending and "an immediate risk of causing harm to the public"

Baxter was jailed for nine months