A father-of-three sparked a high-speed car chase when police tried to pull him over.

Matthew Edden, 32, of Plymouth Avenue, Brighton, was jailed for seven months after admitting dangerous driving.

Officers spotted him driving erratically in his adoptive mother's Volkswagen late at night on July 13 last year in Hollingbury, Brighton, Lewes Crown Court heard yesterday.

Unemployed Edden, who suffered from drinking problems, had driven off along Ditchling Road in Brighton after an argument with his wife, despite having drunk a number of vodkas.

When police tried to pull him over there was a five-mile chase through Brighton.

At one point, Edden's car hit a lamp-post and a policeman smashed the driver's side window with a truncheon.

Roger Booth, prosecuting, said: "It took three goes with the baton to smash the window but the car drove off again."

Edden was eventually cornered and arrested in a Brighton cemetery but he refused to take a breath test.

Rebecca Upton, defending Edden, said: "He described himself as going into 'self-destruction mode'. He sped away because he felt he had too much to lose if he was arrested by police."

Judge Simon Coltart told Edden: "You were clearly under the effect of alcohol that night but you refused to provide a specimen so it cannot be measured.

"In my view this can only be dealt with by a custodial sentence."

He jailed Edden for seven months for dangerous driving and for four months, to run concurrently, for failing to provide a sample to police.

Edden was also banned from driving for three years.