A driver fleeing police recklessly hurtled past a Wirral primary school at lunchtime at more than twice the speed limit.

George Wilson’s van even still had the passenger door open after his drug dealing companion had leapt out and escaped during the pursuit.

A top judge today put 52-year-old Wilson behind bars for 30 weeks - with a side-swipe comment over a suggested Government ban on jail terms of less than six months.

“Short sentences may not be the flavour of the month but there are certain offences which are such that only immediate custody will suffice - and this is one such case,” said Judge Clement Goldstone, QC, the Recorder of Liverpool.

The city’s crown court heard that a policeman in a patrol car saw a man leaning out of the passenger door of Wilson’s blue Astra van apparently involved in a drug deal with a cyclist on a pavement at the junction of Lee Road and Rice Lane, Wallasey.

“He pulled alongside and the cyclist rode off and the driver drove off at speed.

"The officer activated his emergency lights but Wilson did not stop,” said Alaric Walmsley, prosecuting.

During the pursuit he sped past Egremont Primary School on Church Street which has a 20mph speed limit before eventually being caught in Parkside.

Sentencing Wilson the judge said he drove “for about one-and-a-half miles in a built-up area of Wallasey in a wholly dangerous manner.

"You drove on the wrong side of the road, drove at 50mph on roads with 20mph and 30mph limits and went through a red traffic light.

“And after the drug dealer had jumped out of the vehicle you carried on with the passenger door still open.

"You only stopped when you came to a dead end where there was no alternative and then you gave yourself up.

“This was an appalling and a quite deliberate piece of dangerous driving motivated by panic on your part but also by the desire to save the skin of your drug dealer as well as yourself.”

At the time of the incident, which began at 12.30am on September 11 last year, Wilson was only a provisional licence holder and had no insurance. His previous convictions are mainly for dishonestly but include dangerous driving.

Wilson, of Mallard Way, Moreton, who pleaded guilty to driving dangerously and without insurance and a licence, was banned from the road for two years and 15 months.

Gerald Pachter, defending, said that Wilson had not known his passenger was dealing drugs until the police arrived and he then told him he had five wraps of heroin with him and Wilson drove off in panic.

He regretted what had happened and when caught he went quietly, he added.