A DANGEROUS banned driver being pursued by police crashed through maintenance barriers on a closed road and sped recklessly towards workers during a terrifying chase through Greenock.

Kriss McIntosh nearly knocked down a pedestrian and risked a catalogue of collisions as he tore through junctions without stopping and drove on the wrong side of the road and on pavements.

McIntosh, 32 — who has now racked up SEVEN dangerous driving convictions and TEN disqualifications — is today beginning a prison sentence after a sheriff declared him fortunate his shocking antics hadn't killed people.

Lawman Daniel Kelly imposed a decade-long ban and told him: "It is difficult to put into words how appalling and dangerous the standard — if you can call it that — of this driving was."

McIntosh had taken his mum's powerful Audi Q7 to a car wash off Drumfrochar Road when he saw police moving in on the stationary vehicle and he sped off.

Prosecutor Pamela Brady told the sheriff court: "The driver of the police car activated its blue lights and siren and other police units were requested to assist.

"There was a build-up of traffic on Lynedoch Street and the accused's vehicle crossed onto the opposing carriageway and bypassed several cars.

"He continued and turned right onto Hope Street, still on the opposing carriageway, and a member of the public had to step out of the way to avoid being struck by the accused's vehicle."

McIntosh — who at one point collided with a police car — then failed to stop and give way at Dellingburn Street and again at Regent Street, turning into oncoming traffic and causing drivers to swerve to avoid crashing into his car.

He then encountered a section of Baker Street which was closed for roadworks but he wildly continued to drive at speed headlong towards a forest of traffic cones and bollards.

Fiscal depute Mrs Brady said: "Police saw that there were road workers there and officers thought that the accused would finally stop, however, his vehicle is described as 'crashing' through the cones and bollards into an area where several workers were present.

"He continued onto Ingleston Street and accelerated away at speed.

"The driver of the police vehicle manoeuvred alongside the accused and officers clearly identified him.

"The accused then reversed at speed, mounted the footpath and made his way back towards the roadworks."

McIntosh managed to lose the police and left the Audi parked on Antigua Street.

A warrant was issued for his arrest and he was apprehended later.

He committed the offences at around 11am on January 10.

Defence lawyer Aidan Gallagher said: "The vehicle is his mother's and she has, not surprisingly, taken an extremely dim view of his behaviour.

"He has borrowed the vehicle and at the car wash he's seen the police and realised his difficulty as a disqualified driver.

"Sheer panic set in immediately and he compounded matters by the manner of his driving.

"His record speaks for itself."

Sheriff Kelly told McIntosh: "Members of the public and the roads workers were fortunate not to have been killed, you were fortunate not to have been killed and the police were fortunate not to have been killed.

"Your record shows a complete disregard and lack of understanding for the danger your can cause, and have caused, on the roads.

"The maximum period of of custody I can impose, and I don't think it reflects the severity of the offence, is 12 months."

However, the sheriff was obliged by law to reduce the prison term to nine months in recognition of McIntosh's early guilty pleas to dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified and without insurance.

McIntosh, of Benview Road, Port Glasgow, must resit the extended driving test at the end of his ten-year disqualification period.