A driver was caught with eight kilos of high purity cocaine worth more than £1 million after he was stopped off the M25 near Swanley.

Undercover police officers had kept Matthew Read under surveillance and tracked his VW Golf from Essex as he headed for Kent on December 3 last year.

After leaving the motorway at junction three, unmarked police cars were used to block him in at traffic lights.

Prosecutor Trevor Wright said Read tried to get away but his car was rammed and it hit a barrier. An officer broke one of the car windows because it was revving hard.

The purity of the drug was 90 per cent plus and worth about £1.2 million on the street, Mr Wright told Maidstone Crown Court.

Read was on bail having been caught with 34 wraps of cocaine and £400 cash in his car in London in February last year. He was also on licence for a previous offence.

The 34-year-old cocaine addict, of Abbey Road, Abbey Wood, south east London, was jailed for 10 years after admitting two offences of possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply.

After his arrest for the larger amount of drugs, Read claimed he did not know what he was carrying. He claimed he was being paid £500 as a courier.

Mr Wright said Read was jailed for two years in 2005 for possessing the drug. He was sentenced to 42 months in 2013 for robbery of a post office and firearms offences.

Irshad Sheikh, defending, said Read started abusing cocaine as a teenager when his parents’ marriage broke up.

"He was caught with a huge amount of cocaine in his possession, which I am in no doubt he intended to sell on" - Det Con Dave Bull

“He has since become addicted,” he said. “It is entrenched. He has not been able to deal with it. He has let his mother down.”

Recorder Cairns Nelson QC said he was prepared to give Read, who was handcuffed in the dock, the benefit of the doubt and find he played a significant role, rather than a leading one.

After the sentencing, investigating officer Detective Constable Dave Bull of the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate said: "Matthew Read's arrest resulted in a significant amount of Class A drugs being removed from the streets of Kent.

"The cocaine was found to be of a purity between 93 and 97 per cent, which is remarkably high and considered to be of import quality.

"Read knew he was in trouble the moment officers attempted to pull him over, putting the safety of other road-users at risk in a desperate attempt to evade arrest.

"He was caught with a huge amount of cocaine in his possession, which I am in no doubt he intended to sell on.

"Drugs ruin lives and I hope the lengthy sentence imposed on Read sends a clear message to others that Kent Police takes a zero tolerance approach to those who seek to benefit financially from the misery of others."