A DANGEROUS driver shot through Oxford city centre at 115mph in a police chase before crashing his car, leaving it engulfed in smoke.

Stephen Ochola was jailed yesterday for what a court judge called a 'shocking' episode of dangerous driving that spanned the city.

Ochola, 34, of Brome Place, Oxford, had already admitted dangerous driving, driving without insurance and a licence, failing to stop and possession of cocaine.

Oxford Crown Court heard at his sentencing hearing yesterday how officers were first alerted to a black Audi TT in Oxford in the early hours of April 28.

READ ALSO: Giffords Circus leader Nell Gifford dies.

As police approached near Hythe Bridge Street at about 3.30am Ochola, the driver, sped off at high speed.

In dashcam footage he was seen to drive through the city centre and out on to Banbury Road, passing through a red traffic light along the way.

On Banbury Road - a 30 mph area - police drove at 115mph and were still unable to catch the fleeing Audi.

Eventually Ochola crashed his car at a roundabout and as officers swarmed on the wrecked vehicle plumes of smoke began to rise from the wreckage.

Sentencing, Judge Nigel Daly said: "The speeds at which you were driving through the centre of Oxford were ridiculous.

"The possibility of injury to people must have been obvious.

"There were not many people about it's true. It only takes one person to step off the kerb and for you to hit them at 100mph and they are dead."

Ochola was jailed for a total of 12 months and disqualified from driving for three years.