A drink-driver was reported to police by concerned staff at a petrol station after he tried to buy more alcohol.

Self-employed builder Miley Cash then tried to escape from police, driving at high speeds in wet conditions and ended up crashing into a ditch.

Maidstone Crown Court heard it was the third time the married 33-year-old father of four had been caught driving with excess alcohol.

Cash, of Symonds Lane, Yalding, has now been jailed for 12 months and banned from driving for four-and-a-half years.

After being refused alcohol at the Co-op petrol station in East Peckham in the early hoursof November 23 2014, he drove off in his Volvo.

Staff alerted the police and officers gave chase as he sped through Yalding village. He finally crashed in Collier Street and was arrested.

Judge David Griffith-Jones QC said Cash behaved obnoxiously and refused to take a breath test.

Philip Sinclair, defending, said Cash, who admitted dangerous driving and driving with excess alcohol, drove on roads that were quiet at the time and there was no suggestion of putting anyone else at risk.

“The level of dangerousness was not in the higher category,” he said. “His foolish and reckless behaviour that night has caused him and his family dear.”

Judge Griffith-Jones said Cash’s driving was “appalling”, putting others at risk.

“You declined to provide a specimen knowing full well you would fail, and I suspect fail lamentably,” he said.

Cash was previously convicted of drink-driving in 2000 and 2009. He was given a suspended sentence but jailed for 60 days in 2011 for breaches.

“There is very little mitigation. Your guilty pleas were entered at the last moment on the day of your trial,” said the judge.

“I take the view in light of your history and the circumstances surrounding these offences that an immediate sentence of imprisonment is demanded. Nothing else will do.”

The driving ban takes into account the likely six months Cash will be in prison.