A daring learner-driver’s decision to head the wrong way down the hard shoulder of a busy motorway brought a colourful response from a pursuing police officer.

“No, no, ------- hell, terminate,” he shouted as Riley Scamp made the “extraordinary and extremely dangerous” manoeuvre on the M25 Dartford Crossing exit road.

The 24-year-old father had jumped red lights, driven on the wrong side of the road, overtaken queuing traffic and hit speeds of 85mph.

Dashcam footage played at Maidstone Crown Court showed Scamp driving a BMW southbound at high speed along the hard shoulder of the A282, which links the M25 between Kent and Essex.

He clocked 85mph while narrowly avoiding vehicles in the inside lane, before leaving at the Princes Road junction in Dartford.

He then turned full circle on a roundabout, jumping red lights before heading back down the exit slip road and into the path of oncoming cars and lorries.

It was then that the police officer gave his shocked response.

Scamp sped along the hard shoulder as the police car followed on the opposite carriageway, before leaving just before the QEII bridge on the Kent side.

Despite losing a wheel and the suspension breaking off he drove for another 200m before stopping in Cotton Lane, Dartford. He fled on foot but was arrested.

"He was in a state of panic... Of course, that doesn't explain the madness, of which the footage speaks for itself..." - Keith Yardy, defending

He said he had only “popped to shop” on the morning of February 2 this year but panicked when he spotted police, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

Scamp, of Overy Street, Dartford, admitted dangerous driving and driving without a licence and insurance.

Jailing him for a year, Judge Julian Smith said the dangerous manoeuvre down the exit slip road was a clear decision made in an attempt to escape.

A letter Scamp wrote to the court, he said, showed his understanding of just how stupid his decision was and how appalling his driving was.

"That massive mistake, as you put it, is so extraordinary in its conduct that you simply cannot countenance a sentence other than immediate custody,” the judge told him.

It was “a matter of good fortune and not judgement that there was not some devastating, catastrophic consequence”.

"The police had the measure of you but you did something entirely determined to escape that pursuit and drove the wrong way down the slip road and back onto a busy multiple carriageway where the limit is 60mph.

"You did all that you could to escape."

Scamp, who works for a property maintenance firm, was banned from driving for three-and-a-half years.

He has 11 previous convictions for 24 offences, including dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, taking a vehicle without consent and burglary.

Keith Yardy, defending, said Scamp knew he should not have been driving.

"He was in a state of panic when he realised police were there and thought his relationship would come to an end,” he added.

"Of course, that doesn't explain the madness, of which the footage speaks for itself."