A MAN who admitted 'appallingly reckless' driving which put the lives of many other road users at risk on the A48 at Minsterworth has been jailed by a judge.

Narwayne Parchment, 21, of no fixed address, overtook traffic on blind bends and forced cars to take avoiding action as he drove a stolen Vauxhall Astra being chased by police.

He reached speeds of more than 90mph along the A48 from Gloucester to Westbury-on-Severn and went on the wrong side of traffic bollards outside Minsterworth School.

Oncoming traffic was forced to avoid head-on collisions before the Astra turned into Rodley Lane and then crashed into a tree after it took off over a hump.

At Gloucester Crown Court Parchment admitted danger-driving and handling a stolen car on January 30.

He was given a 12-month jail term which will start when his present three-year sentence for drugs offences comes to an end.

After Judge William Hart was shown film taken from the police car which chased Parchment's Astra, Julian Kesner prosecuting, said the driving was truly dreadful.

"There were four people in the car and none of them were wearing seatbelts. Traffic was heavy but Parchment drove the wrong way around traffic islands near a school, and overtook on blind bends at high speed," he said.

"Eventually the car crashed when it took off over a hump in the road and he lost control. It was fortunate that no-one was killed or severely injured."

The £5,000 car had been stolen four days earlier from the University of the West of England in Bristol, and Parchment told police he had bought it for £100.

Chris Smyth, defending, said even though there was no pre-sentence report, Parchment wanted to be sentenced immediately,

"He is at present due for release next August and I ask that any further sentence can be as short as possible," he went on.

"Mr Parchment comes across as very sensible and level headed to me. He has told me he wants to make a fresh start with his life when he gets out of prison and would like to set up some sort of youth centre to help other young people avoid the kind of life that he has had,

"He has been working with the Princes Trust while in prison to see how this may be achieved."

Judge Hart said because his reckless driving had put other people's lives at risk and was completely separate to his earlier offences, and had been committed while he was on bail, it had to be dealt with separately.

Therefore the sentence must be consecutive, he said, and imposed 12 months for the dangerous driving and nine months concurrent with that for handling the stolen car.

Parchment was disqualified from driving for three years and must take an extended driving test before he is allowed to obtain a licence.