A DAD led police on a dangerous 100mph motorway chase with his three young children in the car.

Jason Thomas, aged 33, weaved in and out of traffic on the M5 as he travelled northbound near Worcester, even swerving on to the hard shoulder to undertake lorries in his desperate bid to get away.

The high-speed chase, which was captured on film, came

to a dramatic end when he ran a red light on the A491 near Hagley, north Worcestershire, and smashed into the side of a Toyota.

He tried to run away – leaving his family in the car – but was tackled to the floor by a police officer.

Judge Michael Cullum said Thomas had endangered the lives of “hundreds” of people, along with his own family, as he jailed him for just under two years at Worcester Crown Court.

The court was shown a video recorded from a camera in the pursuing police car.

Police had initially flashed their lights at Thomas, who was driving a silver Vauxhall Vectra along the M5, as they suspected he had drugs.

But he accelerated away and began driving erratically, reaching speeds of more than 100mph.

He eventually left the motorway at junction four and after careering the full circuit of the roundabout he began to speed along the A491 Stourbridge Road.

When he reached a crossroads, he sailed through a red light and straight into the side of a car carrying a man and his 80-year-old mother.

She was hurt following the collision, although her injuries were not believed to be serious.

Thomas – who was also driving while disqualified and without insurance – then made his unsuccesful bid to escape on foot.

“The high speed while undertaking on the hard shoulder is shocking,” said Judge Cullum.

“All the while, you were putting at risk of serious injury or worse, hundreds of people.

“In some ways, the most shocking thing about the whole episode was when, having crashed, the rear door of your vehicle opened ... and out stretched the arm of your young child. What sort of person drives like that with their own three children and their partner in that vehicle?

“You didn’t wait to see how the people in the other vehicle were – you didn’t care about that.

“You even ran away from your own family.”

The court heard it was Thomas’s sixth conviction for dangerous driving, and that he also had 11 previous convictions for driving while disqualified.

He jailed Thomas, of Blowers Green Road, Dudley, for 18 months for dangerous driving, plus four months for driving while disqualified, to run consecutively.

He also disqualified him ffor another 10 years.