A disqualified driver who got behind the wheel on three separate occasions is starting a 12-month jail term.
Anthony Joseph Mooney will also spend a year on supervised licence after he appeared at Belfast Crown Court yesterday for a litany of driving offences.
Judge David McFarland questioned why the 34-year-old - who was banned in July 2015 - was repeatedly caught driving, arrested and then granted police bail which allowed him to re-offend.
The court heard that on one occasion, Mooney, from Burrenview Court in Newcastle, told police he was "full of blues at the time" - under the influence of a benzodiazepine drug.
The first incident occurred in April 2016 in west Belfast.
A motorist was travelling along the Glen Road when a Mercedes driven by Mooney came off the Monagh Bypass and struck his passenger side.
It then crashed into safety railings before hitting a wall.
Mooney was found to be in possession of 80 Phenazepam tablets he had not been prescribed.
The following month, police pursued a Passat driven by Mooney from Clifton Street in north Belfast onto the M1 where his driving forced an ambulance to pull over.
The car was abandoned at Slievebann Avenue, and Mooney was arrested in a nearby health centre later that day.
He was back behind the wheel in November 2016 when a police patrol came to the aid of a driver who had run out of petrol on the M1.
They realised Mooney was disqualified, and he was arrested.
The court was told he had 56 previous convictions, seven of which were for driving whilst disqualified.
Defence barrister Sean O'Hare said Mooney moved to Newcastle from Belfast after coming to the attention of paramilitaries for anti-social behaviour.
He added that he suffered a family bereavement which had a devastating impact and led him back to Belfast and to "people who had a negative influence on him in the past".
