A dangerous driver led a police pursuit which was “more of a procession than a chase,” Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

Brian Finch, 37, who was being treated as a high-risk missing person, failed to stop when requested to by police as he drove his Volkswagen Golf in Sunbridge Road, Bradford. During a ten-minute pursuit Finch, of Bartle Lane, Great Horton, Bradford, drove the wrong way down the one-way system in Westgate, travelled at more than 40mph in a 30mph zone, went through red lights and mounted a kerb.

Police boxed in his car but he locked the doors and slashed his hands and wrists with a knife. Police gained entry and used a taser to restrain him.

His solicitor, Andrew Walker, said his client did stop at some red lights with police vehicles behind him. “It was something of a procession rather than a chase,” he said, adding that a passing ambulance joined the procession. Finch, who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and failing to provide a specimen, was given a 12-month community order, with supervision and an alcohol treatment requirement, and banned from driving for 18 months.