A drive fled police in a stolen car and slalomed through A12 traffic before crashing into a Honda, a court heard.

Police were chasing Joshua Joyce when he sped past vehicles at 70mph in a 50mph zone, overtook cars on a roundabout, and mounted a grass verge as he tried to lose officers.

During the pursuit, Joyce, who was driving a Mazda 2, collided with a traffic cone and nearly hit roadworkers before a tyre flew off the car.

Dangerous – Joshua Joyce sped through roadworks traffic on the A12Joshua Joyce sped through roadworks traffic on the A12 (Image: National Highways)

Joyce still managed to carry on driving at 70mph and was heading towards Colchester city centre on Via Urbanis Romanae when he crashed into a Honda Accord.

Joyce, 33, was arrested at the scene whilst his passenger ran off, though they were detained by police shortly afterwards.

Attending Colchester Magistrates’ Court with his grandmother on Tuesday, Joyce admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop when required by police, driving while disqualified, and driving without insurance.

A separate charge of aggravated vehicle taking was dropped and it was confirmed that although Joyce was the driver of the Mazda, he had not stolen the car.

Wayne Ablett, prosecuting, said: “The vehicle was stolen, reported to police as stolen and the vehicle activated ANPR cameras.

“Police followed the vehicle on to the Marks Tey interchange, heading towards Colchester.

"The vehicle performed an overtake on the roundabout and proceeded back on to the A12 on the slip road where the speed limit was 50mph due to roadworks.

“He swerved into lane two with no indication, then into lane one, cutting up vehicles and proceeding to undertake vehicles using a grass verge, launching stones and dirt onto the carriageway.

“He then collided with a traffic cone and narrowly avoided a collision with roadworkers near  the traffic.”

Philippa Beswick, mitigating, said there was little defence for Joyce’s actions, which took place in November 2022.

Court – Joshua Joyce will appear at Ipswich Crown Court next monthJoshua Joyce will appear at Ipswich Crown Court next month (Image: Daniel Rees, Newsquest)

Chair of the bench Keith Smith told Joyce he will be sentenced before Ipswich Crown Court next month.

He said: “We are committing you to the Crown Court sitting at Ipswich and you will turn up there on Monday, September 23.

"We will give you conditional bail at the residence of Upper Rainham Road, Hornchurch.

“Until that date, you are definitely banned from driving.”