A drunken learner driver has been jailed for a high-speed chase which ended with him ramming a police car and hitting an officer.

 Ruben Cullen drove at speed through residential streets and veered onto the wrong side of the road before his newly-bought Vauxhall Astra was ‘tagged’ by a pursuing police car to bring it to a halt.

One of the police officers got out and went to pull him from his car but Cullen tried to drive off again, catching the constable a glancing blow as he crashed into the police car which had boxed him in.

He then fled on foot but was caught and arrested before being breath tested and found to be over the drink drive limit.

Cullen, aged 24, of Strand Hill, Dawlish, admitted dangerous driving, drink driving, assaulting an emergency worker, failing to stop and having no licence He was jailed for eight months and disqualified for a year by Judge Simon Carr at Exeter Crown Court.

The judge told him: ‘Your behaviour that day was so serious that only immediate custody can reflect it. It is a miracle that nobody was killed or seriously injured.’

Miss Evie Dean, prosecuting, said police responded to a report of a car driving dangerously in Exeter on August 28 and tried to stop Cullen’s Astra in Bramley Avenue.

He took off at speed and went so fast in busy residential roads and through traffic calming measures that the initial chase had to be abandoned on grounds of public safety.

The car was spotted again on nearby Hill Barton Road and a second pursuit started in which Cullen overtook eight vehicles and went the wrong side of a bollard in an attempt to evade the police.

His driving was deemed so dangerous that the pursuing traffic car carried out a tactical stop and one of the two police on board got out to detain him.

Cullen tried to pull away while the officer was stood next to his open driver’s door, which hit him as his car shot forward and rammed the police vehicle, damaging the bonnet and bumper.

He was arrested after a short foot chase and blew a breathalyser sample with 49 microgrammes of alcohol, well above the limit of 35.

Miss Felicity Payne, defending, said Cullen was drinking too much and using cannabis at the time but has since changed his lifestyle. He has worked as a removals man but has re-trained as a scaffolder.

He is hoping to move house with his long term partner, who is pregnant with their child and due to give birth in May. He has been assessed as a low risk of reoffending and a good prospect of rehabilitation by the probation service.