A BARROW man who drove the wrong way down a one-way street in a chase with police was banned from the road.

A court heard how Carl Stephen Lenton, 20, tried to evade police when they were alerted to a false number plate on his car in an incident last year.

The defendant appeared at Barrow Crown Court yesterday charged with driving without due care and attention, using a false number plate and driving without a licence or insurance

He had previously pleaded guilty to the charges in a hearing at Preston Crown Court.

Prosecutor Colette Renton told the court police had recognised Lenton's number plate as fraudulent.

She said: "Mr Lenton was driving a VW Passat at around 5pm.

"Police began to follow the car and said the driver responded by accelerating to Market Street and in the course of doing so overtook a car.

"Instead of following the road Mr Lenton went straight on that resulted in him going down a one-way street."

He was said to have driven down the narrow stretch of road for 50 metres, with police officers deciding against a chase for safety reasons.

The prosecutor continued: "Police later located the car in Morrison's car park and a member of the public handed the driver of the vehicle to police."

The court heard a police officer found the keys to the car on Lenton, confirming it was his.

Lenton was said to have been convicted in 2015 for similar offences, as well failing to stop after an accident.

The court was told in Lenton's defence, the offence was an 'error of judgement' and that he had a stable job as a mechanic and had made 'positive changes to his life' since committing the offence.

Lenton, of Longway, was sentenced to a 24-month community order, forcing him to carry out a 20 days of rehabilitation activities and 120 hours of unpaid work.

He was also fined £500.

Judge Nicholas Barker said: "There can be little gain in locking you up today."