Is this Britain's most reckless father? Dad-of-three 'suspected of carrying drugs' leads police on 102mph motorway chase - with his three children sat in the back seat

This dramatic in-car footage shows a father leading police on a 102mph motorway chase - with his three terrified children in the back seat.

Jason Thomas weaved in and out of traffic, repeatedly using the hard shoulder of the M5.

Thomas, 33, had just picked his children up from school when he was pursued by traffic police who suspected him of carrying drugs.

Dashboard footage from the police patrol car shows Thomas racing through a red light, before smashing his silver Vauxhall Vectra into an oncoming car.

The father-of-three then tried to flee on foot - abandoning his three children - before an officer wrestled him to the ground as he lumbered across a dual carriageway near Hagley, Worcestershire.

Thomas was jailed for 22 months earlier this week, after admitting dangerous driving at Worcester Crown Court.

Judge Michael Cullum said he had put the lives of 'hundreds' at risk.

He told him: 'The high speed while undertaking on the hard shoulder is shocking.

'All the while, you were putting at risk of serious injury or worse, hundreds of people.

[Drink-driver caught doing 100mph]

'In some ways, the most shocking thing about the whole episode was when, having crashed, the rear door of your vehicle opened and out stretched the arm of your young child.

'What sort of person drives like that with their own three children and their partner in that vehicle?

'You didn’t wait to see how the people in the other vehicle were – you didn’t care about that.

'You even ran away from your own family.'

Police had initially flashed their lights at Thomas and indicated for him to stop after they suspected he had drugs in his car.

The two-minute recording shows the Vectra tearing up the M5 near Worcester, dodging cars and attempting to run the chasing police car off the road.

Thomas leaves the motorway at junction four, where he hurtles along country lanes on the A491 near Hagley, north Worcestershire.

But just a few seconds later the children's ordeal comes to a shocking end, as Thomas slammed into the side of a Toyota, carrying a man with his 80-year-old mother - who was hurt in the crash.

Thomas, from Dudley, West Mids, tried to flee on foot, but officers were too fast for him and he was detained 20 yards from his wrecked car.

The court heard it was Thomas's sixth conviction for dangerous driving, and that he was already driving whilst disqualified and without insurance.

Thomas also had 11 previous convictions for driving while disqualified.

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He was jailed for 18 months for dangerous driving and four months consecutively for driving while disqualified.

He was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.