A banned driver fled after smashing into a van on a dual carriageway and seriously injuring two young children, a court heard.

Seven months later, Stephen Cash was back on the road driving dangerously in the same area in an attempt to get away from the police.

Jailing the 30-year-old father for four years and four months, a judge told him: “You are a prolific offender. Your history shows you have consistently disregarded your obligations under the law.

“Now, almost inevitably you have again offended, and this time you have inflicted on two small children very serious injuries.”

Cash, said to be from the travelling community, of Pye Corner, Ulcombe, near Maidstone, was banned from driving for over seven years.

He admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, stealing cash from a bank in Sittingbourne and possessing cannabis.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Cash’s BMW 320 sped across the A249 at the bottom of Detling Hill from Pilgrim’s Way near Jade’s Crossing at about 7.30pm on November 2 last year and smashed into a Toyota van driven by Lee Ronchetti.

The van flipped onto its side and slid across the Sittingbourne-bound road. Cash abandoned his car in the middle of the dual carriageway and ran off.

Prosecutor Ben Irwin said a police dog was used to search for Cash but he had taken a taxi home from a nearby pub.

Mr Ronchetti, a builder, and his children were all left injured in the van. Most seriously hurt was his seven-year-old daughter, who suffered deep lacerations to her left wrist and torn tendons.

She needed surgery and skin grafts at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead and has been left with severe scarring.

The boy, aged four, was also left with scarring from cuts to his left hand. Mr Ronchetti, who was in shock and distraught, had whiplash and injuries to his left shoulder and back. He needed physiotherapy for six weeks.

Seven months later at 10.45pm on June 6 this year, Cash drove erratically in a van, again at Jade’s Crossing, as he fled from police officers.

He almost lost control of the van before driving the wrong way down roads and on roundabouts, and hitting 70mph on Hoath Way.

Police used a stinger device, which punctured one tyre, but it did not stop him, said Mr Irwin. He went onto the M2 before stopping in Blue Bell Hill village.

A “standard response” police driver said he had never seen such poor driving in his 12 years of service.

Cash tested positive for drugs but he refused a further test. He had a small amount of cannabis on him.

On May 19 this year he went into Santander Bank in Sittingbourne High Street, where he was known as a regular customer, and while the cashier’s back was turned he stole a tin containing £60 from behind the counter.

Mr Irwin said Cash had 25 previous convictions for 63 offences, 27 of them for driving and including seven for driving while disqualified and for driving while unfit through drink or drugs.

It led Judge David Griffith-Jones QC to say: “It’s an extraordinary list.”

He told Cash: “It is appropriate to describe you as a serial offender when it comes to driving offences.”

He said of the injuries and psychological effects on the victims: “For all there consequences you bear a heavy weight of responsibility.

“It is appropriate to describe you as a serial offender when it comes to driving offences" - Judge Griffith-Jones

“One might think this awful incident would have permitted you to finally see sense, to display remorse and modify your behaviour. Not a bit of it, you went on to commit further offences.

“There is no significant mitigation beyond your guilty pleas. You now face a custodial sentence of significant length.”

Cash will have to take an extended test before being allowed back on the road.

John Fitzgerald, defending, said illiterate Cash could not survive or feed himself without a vehicle because of his work involving block paving and driveways.

The collision with the van was “a simple misjudgement with extremely serious consequences”. He fled the scene through shock.

“He had seen how serious it was,” said Mr Fitzgerald. “He said: ‘I have got a heart and a conscience.’ He feels a little cowardly that he left the scene.”

Judge Griffith-Jones said the suggestion Cash had remorse was “difficult to swallow” as he offended again.

Mr Fitzgerald said Cash had experienced a difficult 10 years or so, which may assist why he made such ludicrous decisions. Ten years ago he saw his father murdered in Cobham, Surrey.

“It caused mental health problems,” said Mr Fitzgerald. “He has very little structure and stability in his life.

"He doesn’t stop to think about the way he lives his life. He attempted to hang himself during his last prison sentence.”