A BANNED driver allegedly led police on a high speed chase through country lanes near Newton Abbot before abandoning his car and being tracked down by a police dog.

Christopher McDonald went through built-up areas of Torquay at 60mph and accelerated up to 100mph on back roads leading out of the town, Exeter Crown Court was told.

He narrowly missed a moped rider and two vans and police abandoned the pursuit twice before finding his empty Vauxhall Insignia on a farm track near Shaldon, the jury heard.

He is alleged to have fled across fields on foot but been arrested by one police officer on Long Lane, near Shaldon, at exactly the moment that a police dog who tracked his path arrived on the scene.

McDonald, aged 29, of St Paul’s Crescent, Torquay, denies dangerous driving and driving while disqualified. He says he was not the man chased by police.

He claims he was mis-identified by police because he featured in an episode of the Channel Four series Call the Cops three months before his arrest for these offences.

The show included footage from an earlier police chase and an image of him in the back of the police car after his arrest on the night of March 30, 2019.

The jury have been told that he admitted to dangerous driving, failing to stop, and driving while disqualified in May 2019.

Mr Robert Yates, prosecuting, said a police patrol chased the Insignia after it failed to stop in Torquay and it reached very high speeds as it headed onto country roads leading towards Newton Abbot.

The pursuit started at around 12.30pm on December 12 last year and continued until the abandoned vehicle was found in a track off Long Lane, Shaldon, after 1pm.

Mr Yates said a female officer saw McDonald walking in Long Lane and stopped him. She was asking his details when dog handler PC Mark Stevens and Drake arrived after tracking a trail through a muddy field.

PC Stevens had seen a trail of shoe prints in the field and believed they matched the trainers worn by McDonald.

PC Callum Brown, who conducted the pursuit, said: ‘The driving was horrendous. His speeds were exceptional. It was outrageous. He went into a roundabout exceptionally fast.’

He said during his pursuit he went at 77mph in a 40mph limit and 100mph in a 60mph zone but failed to catch the Vauxhall. He gave up the chase twice because it was unsafe to continue.

McDonald told the jury he worked as a mechanic in Torquay and had been asked by his employer to deliver a different car to Long Lane during his lunch hour.

He said he knew nothing about the Insignia and was not the driver. He said he was to be picked up by his employer. He claimed his employer had lied when he said he had not done so.The trial continues