A DANGEROUS driver who left his pregnant girlfriend with life-changing injuries showed a “flagrant” disregard for the law after he jumped behind the wheel of a car while still banned.

Samuel Nicholas, 26, from Caldicot, was warned he is probably going straight to prison next month after he was caught driving whilst disqualified.

The defendant was jailed for 24 months, suspended for 24 months, in 2019 for causing his then girlfriend Hannah Gollop serious injury by dangerous driving.

He was also banned from driving for four years after he admitted the offence which saw his victim suffer multiple skull fractures and serious injuries to her vertebrae and leg.

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At Nicholas’ sentencing hearing last September, Newport Crown Court heard how she struggled to walk unaided and had to give up her job as a waitress.

The defendant crashed his Volvo C30 on Chepstow’s Itton Road in November 2018 after he was spotted driving at 80mph in a 30mph zone.

Nicholas crashed into a tree when he lost control of his car on the country road during a police chase.

He avoided going straight to jail last year after the court heard he was the full-time carer for his victim.

Nicholas was before a judge again after he pleaded guilty to driving a Vauxhall Astra whilst disqualified, two counts of resisting arrest, driving without insurance and being in breach of last year’s two-year suspended prison sentence.

The offences were committed in Newport on September 15.

Jenny Yeo, representing Nicholas, told Cardiff Crown Court how her client and Miss Gollop were no longer together.

Judge David Wynn Morgan heard the defendant was in a relationship with another woman who was pregnant.

Nicholas’ barrister asked for sentence to be adjourned so a report could be prepared by the Probation Service.

Judge Wynn Morgan allowed the request but warned Mrs Yeo: “The likelihood is he is going straight to custody.”

He called the defendant’s latest offences a “flagrant” disregard of the law.

Nicholas, of Station Road, Rogiet, was granted conditional bail and is due to be sentenced on December 8.

The prosecution was represented by Andrew Kendall.