A CREWE man with a list of driving bans was told he would go to prison if he flouted a disqualification again.

Ilia Kaptiev abandoned his Ford Galaxy as police tried to "cut him off" after they spotted him speeding while he made his way down Alton Street on March 2 this year.

After he was arrested, checks showed Kaptiev was still serving a 12-month driving ban that had been imposed last July.

South Cheshire Magistrates' Court heard he was disqualified from driving three times in his native Bulgaria between 2010 and 2016 and he was also convicted of driving while disqualified in the UK last year.

Through an interpreter the defendant told magistrates he had problems getting to work at Morrisons depot near Northwich and that he thought his ban had been served at the time of the offence.

But sentencing the 30-year-old to an 18-week prison term suspended for two years, Magistrates' Chairman Fraser Geekie said: "We don't believe in any way that you did not know of your disqualification.

"You have a long record of motoring offences, including a very recent conviction for a like offence. But because of your early guilty pleas we are prepared to suspend your sentence."

Prosecutor Michael O'Kane told the court that Kaptiev was spotted turning at speed onto Davenham Crescent, but when a police officer found the car soon after the defendant was nowhere to be seen.

He was stopped 10 minutes later after he was seen riding as a passenger in another vehicle. Kaptiev admitted he was driving the Ford Galaxy but told police he "did not know he was still disqualified".

"He said he was using the same car to drive to Bulgaria and for work purposes in the UK," said the prosecutor.

Kaptiev, of St. Clair Street, Crewe pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and using a motor vehicle without third party insurance.

The court heard that other driving matters committed in Lincolnshire had been dealt with at a previous hearing with the defendant receiving a three-year ban at Warrington Magistrates' Court.

Kaptiev, an agency worker, said: "I'm struggling to support myself and I used the car so I could get to work. My landlord has been pressurising me to pay the rent.

"We [my wife and I] came here to earn a living and lead a normal life. But we have real issues about the transport. If we can't get there [Morrisons] then we don't work."

Magistrates ordered Kaptiev complete 300 hours of unpaid work as well as undertake 20 days of rehabilitation activities.

His driving ban was increased to four years and six months, while costs of £85 and a £128 victim surcharge were also imposed.

He was warned by the Magistrates' Chairman: "If you commit any offence whatsoever during the two years of this suspended sentence it is highly likely that you will go straight to prison."