A DRIVER has been sent to prison after crashing into a school bus which police were using as roadblock to stop him as he sped through the crowded streets of Appleby during the town’s horse fair.

Steven Quinn, 32, was driving a £40,000 BMW – stolen a few weeks earlier from Premier League footballer Stephane Sessegnon’s house in the North-East – when he tried to evade the barricade police were setting up in front of him in Battlebarrow, Appleby.

He tried to squeeze the car behind the bus – which was still reversing into position – but got jammed between it and a wall, Carlisle Crown Court heard.

He was arrested by the police who, with pedestrians jumping out of the way for safety, had been chasing him in their cars through the streets which had officially been closed to traffic during the horse fair, prosecutor Gerard Rogerson said.

Quinn, whose address was listed on court records as Gretna Road, Carlisle, although his permanent home is in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was jailed for a total of 25 months and banned from driving for two years after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, driving without a licence, having no insurance, and handling the car knowing it had been stolen.

Mr Rogerson told the court the car was one of three stolen from outside the Ponteland home of Sunderland FC striker Sessegnon while he was on holiday.