A father who committed his fifth drink-driving offence while being pursued by police escaped a jail sentence because his young daughter risked being taken into care.

Gary Kelly is the sole carer of the eight-year-old, having parted from her mother, and his current partner and his mother would have had to give up work to care for the child.

A judge said of 41-year-old Kelly: “On the one hand he is looking after a child, and on the other he is acting like a child.”

Suspending a prison sentence, Judge Michael Evans QC said: “There is one matter I have to consider and that is your daughter. You have no sympathy at all.

“You are her legal guardian and full time carer. She has had a difficult time.

"If you receive a custodial sentence today, she will have to live with your mother only if she gave up full-time employment.

“It is not right on your mother and not right on your daughter. Goodness knows what you were thinking setting an example in this way.

“I have to bear in mind the future for your daughter.

"It is not her fault you are doing this sort of thing. I hope you will grow out of it.”

Kelly, of Moyle Close, Parkwood, Rainham, admitted dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol, failing to stop and driving while disqualified.

He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years and ordered to do 120 hours unpaid work. He was banned from driving for three years.

Maidstone Crown Court heard police spotted Kelly in his partner’s Vauxhall Corsa as he accelerated through a red light in road works at 12.30am on June 24 this year.

Prosecutor Carina Suarez said officers in the police car put on their blue lights, but Kelly swerved around them and sped away.

They followed at high speed as Kelly turned his lights off in an attempt to get away.

He eventually drove into Lovelace Close, Rainham, on the wrong side of a roundabout and pulled up near his home.

When officers approached him he was on his phone making a call to his partner who was standing in the doorway across the road. He shouted out to her.

“There was a strong smell of alcohol coming from him,” said Miss Suarez. “There were two packs of beer in the footwell unopened.”

Kelly, who works in the building trade, was breathtested and found to be over the limit – 57 microgrammes per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

"The only reason I have suspended this sentence is because of your daughter" - Judge Michael Evans

Miss Suarez said Kelly had 22 previous convictions for 76 offences, including four for drink-driving and driving while disqualified. He had stayed out of trouble for six years.

David Sadeh, defending, said Kelly looked after his daughter on a full-time basis. His partner worked as a receptionist and was not in a position to look after the child.

“If sent to prison, in the short term she would have to stay with his mum,” he said.

“She either resigns her full-time employment to look after her or Social Services would be involved.”

Mr Sadeh said Kelly panicked when he saw the police because he had been drinking.

Passing sentence, Judge Evans said: “You were out after midnight in a car drunk.

"Officers pursued you for two-and-a-half miles.

"You said you had a swig of alcohol just before you were stopped.

“It was a miracle no one was injured. It clearly crosses the custody threshold. You have no reason to drive like this.

"You know full well the risks when you get into a car drunk.

“You think it is an unfortunate offence, but the dangers to the public are enormous.”

The judge said of Kelly’s daughter and the sentence: “Because of the difficulties she will receive if I impose a custodial sentence, I am going to suspend it.

“The only reason I have suspended this sentence is because of your daughter. You are meant to be her father, you are not meant to act like a child.”

Judge Evans warned: “Next time this happens, she will be removed from your custody. Please grow up.”

The judge earlier told Mr Sadeh: “This is his fifth excess alcohol. I am afraid my sympathy for him is not there. He is a grown man. He made that choice while he had care of his daughter.

“If she will be thrown back into Social Services with no one to care for her that is a mitigating feature I will have to bear in mind."