A FALMOUTH man sped off from police, sparking a high speed chase through housing estates in Truro, a court heard this morning.

Ben Lucas Moses, aged 24, of The Beacon, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and to further offences of failing to provide a specimen and failing to stop when directed by a police officer.

The video filmed from the pursuing police car was shown to Truro magistrates and began at Trafalgar roundabout in the city.

Prosecutor Alison May explained that at 8pm on March 21, Moses drove off in his BMW when approached by a policeman, who had got out of the following patrol car with blue lights flashing.

He turned left and sped into St Austell Street before turning right into Mitchell Hill, reaching speeds in excess of 60mph in his bid to escape.

He eventually turned left into a dead end, in a housing estate off Tregurra Lane, where he was detained under threat of a taser.

An interim driving disqualification has been imposed on Moses.

Magistrates felt they had insufficient powers to sentence him, as the maximum sentence they can impose is a six-month prison term.

Chairman of the bench Fiona Roberts said: "You were in a residential area in which children could have been walking home from playing football or scouts. 

"You drove like a lunatic and there wouldn't just have been an accident, you were going to kill someone."

"Our powers of sentence are far too insufficient," she added.

Moses will be sentenced at Truro Crown Court on Thursday, June 20.