A DANGEROUS driver ignored his girlfriend’s pleas to stop during a high-speed police chase which left her seriously injured after he crashed his car into a bus stop.

Leon Turner was high on drugs and driving clumsily around a Southend car park with his girlfriend in the passenger seat when he was spotted by police.

When he noticed officers were watching him, he sped off – sparking a police chase through Southend which at its height saw Turner racing at 90mph down the A127 towards the Rayleigh Weir.

With police still in pursuit, the 20-year-old took the A129 before heading back towards Southend on the A13 in the early hours of November 27 last year.

Sentencing at Basildon Crown Court yesterday, Recorder John Caudle said: “This was a very bad piece of driving and was clearly dangerous.

“Your then-girlfriend was asking you to stop – probably begging you – but you ignored her.

“You had drugs in the car and asked her to throw them out the window and she properly refused.”

The court heard officers struggled to keep up with Turner’s Ford Fiesta when it was travelling at 75mph.

Due to the prolonged and dangerous nature of his driving, the force control room discontinued the pursuit only for officers to be alerted that he had crashed near Chalkwell Park minutes later.

Witnesses described Turner as being distraught and asking his girlfriend to get out of the car before fleeing the scene and hiding in a nearby bush where he was later found and arrested.

Recorder Caudle added: “You shouted at her to get out but she couldn’t because she was trapped. You then abandoned her when police arrived and fled the scene.”

His girlfriend, who witnesses say could be heard sobbing, suffered serious injuries including a cut to her head and a broken pelvis and was trapped in the car for more than an hour.

Once she had been freed, she was rushed to Southend Hospital.

Medics felt there was sufficient concern about her injuries, which were initially considered life-threatening, to transfer to a specialist unit at the Royal London Hospital.

Turner, of Ness Road, Shoebury, admitted eight offences of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, driving under the influence of drugs, possession of cocaine and cannabis, failing to stop and report and no insurance or licence.

He was sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institute suspended for two years.

He was also banned from driving for two years, made subject of a four-month curfew and must complete 120 hours of unpaid work and 40 days of a rehabilitation activity.