A police car with blue lights flashing and sirens on followed a car as it veered in and out of traffic.

Officers followed Matthew Lewis, who has 21 previous convictions for driving while banned, from the Long Reach roundabout on the Thanet Way at Whitstable onto the A2 through Faversham and Ospringe.

They pulled up next to him to order him over but 41-year-old Lewis, who was driving a Peugeot 306, accelerated.

Ruth Dalziell, prosecuting, told Canterbury magistrates Lewis veered in and out of traffic, overtaking dangerously so that oncoming traffic was forced on to the side of the road.

He took the chase to his house in Deerton Street, Teynham, where he got out of car and was arrested.

Lewis admitted driving while banned, having no insurance, careless driving and failing to stop for police.

Mrs Dalziell added that he had 21 previous convictions for driving while banned.

Debbie Pizzey, defending, said Lewis had learning difficulties and struggled with reading and writing,

“He thought his latest ban had expired and thinks it was not a proper police chase because he simply led the police straight to his house,” Miss Pizzey said.

Lewis, who was jailed in January for pulling a clump of hair out a woman’s head, was bailed until October 20 with a condition not to sit in the front seat of any vehicle.

•A 73-year-old man from Teynham who brandished a pitchfork at police officers arresting Lewis was given a caution.