A local man has been fined £500 and banned from driving for a year after pleading guilty to Dangerous Driving.

Christian BONFANTE, 31, of Laguna Estate, was sentenced at the Magistrates’ Court this morning.

For possession of cannabis, to which he also pleaded guilty, he received no separate penalty.

His arrest came after an incident at 10:40pm on Thursday 22 April last year, when officers were patrolling Devil’s Tower Road and saw BONFANTE driving a locally plated vehicle at high speed.

Officers signalled for him to stop by activating their blue lights, but he continued to drive in a dangerous manner along the road.

He was then pursued onto Winston Churchill Avenue and then into Glacis Estate, where he abandoned the vehicle and attempted to flee the area on foot.

Officers lost sight of BONFANTE, but, five minutes, later another officer on foot patrol spotted him crossing Winston Churchill Avenue, sweating and out of breath.

On being asked what he was doing, he replied that he had just bought some hash.

He then handed over a small piece of cannabis resin weighing 1.6 grams (about £8) to officers, who then arrested him on suspicion of being in Possession of a Controlled Class B Drug.

He was also later arrested and charged with Dangerous Driving and Failing to Stop.