A judge has ordered an investigation after a man spent five months locked up for offences he didn’t commit.

Jack Strover was on prison licence when he was arrested for driving dangerously and while disqualified in streets including Beaver Lane, Ashford.

He was immediately recalled to HMP Elmley while awaiting trial at Canterbury Crown Court.

A police officer said in a written report that he had recognised the 29-year-old at the wheel of the Peugeot 206 last December.

But Judge James O’Mahony heard that when lawyers reviewed the “on air” discussion between the officer and police control it revealed he had been unsure of the driver’s identity.

The officer said: “I suspect the driver is Jack Strover, although not confirmed; only a partial sighting.”

After discussion, prosecutor Edmund Fowler said the Crown Prosecution Service had now decided not to go ahead with a trial.

Strover had denied charges that included having no insurance and was formally acquitted.

The court heard that Strover had served the equivalent of a 10-month sentence while awaiting his trial after being recalled by the prison authorities.

Judge O’Mahony then ordered a CPS and police inquiry into the circumstances of the arrest and charging.

He said: “The difference between the statement and the on-air discussion is stark and it is extremely disturbing and a matter of great concern. This must be considered at the very highest level.”

In 2010, Strover, then a banned driver caused “mayhem” after ramming two police cars and injuring officers in an attempt to escape arrest during a six-mile chase.

Strover, of Bybrook Road, Kennington, was jailed for 17 months and banned for three years after admitting dangerous driving and driving while disqualified.

Then in 2004 he was again jailed for five years after admitting trying to smuggle a cocktail of drugs into prison to pay off a debt.

Strover had stashed cocaine, heroin, cannabis and inside condoms worth £11,000 on the black market.