The Marquess of Blandford, one of Britain’s most consistently wayward aristocrats, was jailed yesterday for six months for a series of driving offences.

Appearing at Oxford Crown Court under his full name, Charles James Spencer Churchill, the disinherited heir to Blenheim Palace and scion of a line that produced the first Duke of Marlborough and Sir Winston Churchill, was jailed for dangerous driving, careless driving and one count of criminal damage.

It has been more than a decade since Blandford, known to friends and followers of his adventures in the provincial courts as “Jamie”, was last detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure, for forging prescriptions. Before that, he had been convicted for the forgery of cheques, failing to keep up maintenance payments to his first wife, and various drug-related offences. Alongside intermittent drug problems, however, the Marquess has a driving record that would make Toad of Toad Hall appear a careful and conscientious motorist.

The first of his latest motoring transgressions began on June 16 last year when a police patrol spotted his Range Rover Sport on the northbound carriageway of the M62. The court was shown video footage taken from the patrol car, showing the Range Rover failing to indicate as it zigzagged through traffic. On a road where the speed limit fluctuated between 40 and 60mph, the officer had to drive at up to 95mph to keep up.

Two months later police were informed of a second incident involving Blandford, by a fellow motorist, Graeme Kennedy. Mr Kennedy had been driving along the A4095 towards Witney, Oxfordshire, on August 22. Rachel Drake, for the prosecution, told the court: “Mr Kennedy noticed the defendant in the Range Rover tail-gating a Vauxhall Corsa behind him and then realised he had overtaken it and was behind him, practically touching the back of his car.” She said that Mr Kennedy beeped his horn after Blandford cut in front of him, and that “the Range Rover slammed on its brakes, practically coming to a halt, and he had to swerve out to avoid an accident”.

The court was told that the defendant mounted a grass verge to overtake Mr Kennedy again, stopping in front of him and climbing out of the car and shouting: “Who do you think you are, beeping your horn at me?” Ms Drake said that as Mr Kennedy sought to reverse and pull away, the defendant kicked the side of his car.

Blandford’s final driving offence was reported to police on January 6 this year, as he was returning to his home in Wootton, near Woodstock, Oxfordshire, after a trip to Sainsbury’s.

At the sight of his driving, in a rented Vauxhall Corsa, two other motorists called 999. The court was told that Blandford had pulled in front of cars repeatedly without indicating, collided with the verge repeatedly and come close repeatedly to hitting parked cars and motorists waiting at junctions.

Blandford was convicted of the first offence in his absence at Coventry Crown Court in July; the others he admitted at an earlier hearing in Oxford.

His lawyer, Peter Binder, said Blandford was a highly complex individual and had been suffering various personal crises at the time of each offence.

He had been admitted to the Priory clinic after relapsing into drug addiction. Mr Binder added that Blandford spent last Christmas and the new year alone, after separating from his wife and child.

However, there had been a reconciliation since with his family, as well as “a positive, marked change in his condition”.

Judge David Morton Jack called Blandford’s behaviour “decidedly criminal” and told him: “There cannot be one standard for the unhappy and one for those who are settled in life.” He said that the public deserved “protection from such conduct” as Blandford was jailed for 26 weeks.

Wearing a dark tie and navy blue blazer, ornamented with a pocket handkerchief, Blandford was ordered to pay costs before being led away to the cells.

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