A hit-and-run driver has been jailed after he attacked police who tracked him down and tried to arrest him.

Nathan Drury was banned from driving and on a suspended sentence when his Peugeot car crashed into another motorist at Halwell, near Kingsbridge.

He had no insurance and drove off rather than stopping to give his details but the owner of the car he hit alerted friends who spotted the Peugeot at the Coop in Kingsbridge.

They tried to block him in but he drove off and went to a house in Torbay where police were called because he was thought to be an intruder.

Officers noticed the Peugeot parked outside the address and although nothing was done about the complaint of trespass, he was arrested for the driving offences.

He struggled so violently that the two police who were trying to control him had to call in five reinforcements before he was put into hand and leg restraints.

Drury kicked off again when after the cuffs were taken off at the custody suite and when he was sprayed with incapacitant he laughed and said "yum, yum, more!"

He had been banned from driving for previous motoring offences and was subject to a ten month suspended sentence for carrying out three raids on an all night automatic car wash.

Drury, aged 26, formerly of Archway Drive, Dartmouth, but now living in Liskeard, admitted driving while disqualified and without insurance, resisting arrest, and assaulting a police officer.

He was jailed for a total of nine months and banned from driving for a year following his release by Judge Erik Salomonsen at Exeter Crown Court.

He told him:"When you were detained, it took seven police officers to arrest you, and you caused injury to one of them. You continued to struggle at the police station and caused injury to a custody officer.

"Given the circumstances of these offences and your history of previous offending, there is no alternative to an immediate jail sentence."

Herc Ashworth, prosecuting, said the accident at Halwell happened on the evening September 9 last year and the incident at the filling station at the Kingsbridge Coop shortly afterwards.

Police found the car outside a house in Torbay where Drury became violent when he was arrested. He attacked a custody officer after being taken to the police station, twisting his leg so violently he needed hospital treatment.

Paul Dentith, defending, said there was no evidence Drury was to blame for the original accident at Halwell.

He said Drury has been working well with the probation service, has completed the 100 hours of community work he received with his suspended sentence, and is now living and working in Liskeard.