A MAN has been jailed for drink-driving after leading a police car on a high-speed pursuit through a built-up residential area.

A police officer clocked John Cousins driving his partner's black Lexus at more than 60 miles per hour through "tight residential streets" and around blind bends.

Despite being pursued by the unmarked police car, which had its blue lights flashing, Cousins made no attempt to stop during the five-minute chase in the Risca and Rogerstone area.

A sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court was told Cousins drove the wrong way around a roundabout and entered another residential area, before leaving the car and running into a wooded area.

When a police officer found him "hiding in the trees", he was detained and asked to provide a breath sample - which he subsequently failed.

At the police station, a second test revealed 43 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

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Cousins told police officers his "heart was racing" and he was "in a blind panic" when the offences occurred shortly after midnight on April 17 this year.

At an earlier court appearance, the 34-year-old - a forklift and crane operator by trade - admitted driving above the legal alcohol limit, driving without insurance, failing to stop, and dangerous driving.

Prosecuting counsel Meirion Davies said the April 17 offence was the fourth time Cousins had been caught "driving while unfit" since 2016.

He had only been handed back his driving licence six months before committing the April offences, the court heard.

In mitigation, the court was told Cousins was "ashamed" of the incident and "fully accepted the standard of his driving was dangerous".

He accepted drinking "two small glasses of wine" on the night in question and made the mistake of "self-calculating" whether he had been safe to drive.

Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke told Cousins, of Ty Isaf Park Avenue, Risca, she was "not satisfied there is a realistic expectation of rehabilitation".

She jailed him for a total of six months and disqualified him from driving for three years and three months, at the end of which he must take an extended re-test if he is to regain his licence.