A DRIVER who came across a stolen van led police on a high-speed chase through 20mph streets.

Bolton Crown Court heard how 36-year-old Tyrone Conway was spotted by police driving a Vauxhall Combo van on the afternoon of November 29 last year.

The vehicle had been stolen earlier in the day from a house in Oakfield Grove, Bolton.

Philip Dobson, prosecuting, told how, when officers tried to stop the vehicle, Conway sped off, driving at 60mph in Tennyson Road, Farnworth, which has a 20mph limit, causing a bus to swerve to avoid being hit.

At the junction with Buckley Lane, Conway failed to stop an, on Kildare Street, He continued to drive at high speed before stopping, abandoning the vehicle, and running into a house, where he was arrested.

Conway, of Tig Fold Road, Farnworth, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, taking a vehicle without consent and having no insurance.

While awaiting his court appearance Conway, who has previous convictions for burglary and vehicle interference, was remanded in prison for the first time. Martyn Walsh, defending, stressed: “The five weeks he has spent in custody has focussed his mind.”

Conway was jailed for 10 months and was banned from driving for 28 months. Judge Timothy Stead told him: “Your driving was dangerous and deliberately so. In short, you put a number of persons in danger by your deliberate and protected driving.”