The driver of a car involved in a head-on crash while heading the wrong way down a Dover street was still twice the drink drive limit SIX hours later.

Supervisor Thomas Armstrong had gone out to watch a football match in a pub but ended up in the flat of a woman he didn’t know.

Then at 3am he decided to chance driving to his mother’s home - but smashed his Proton Savvy into an oncoming car in Frith Road, seriously injuring a passenger.

Now Armstrong of Kings Road, Aylesham has been told he will be sacked from his upholstery job after a judge jailed him for 14 months.

The 27 year old pleaded guilty to causing serious injuries to Michelle Want, a passenger in her friend Paul Andrews' Nissan.

Prosecutor Vivian Walters told Canterbury Crown Court how Mr Andrews was travelling the right way along Barton Road at 25 mph but as he rounded a sharp bend, where it become Frith Road, he saw car headlights.

“Before he could react his vehicle was hit head on by the Proton and both airbags deployed. Mr Andrews said he could hear Ms Want screaming in pain.

“He saw her arm was hanging away in what was a very unnatural position and he called the police," she added.

"Driving dangerously can have disastrous consequences, as this case shows" - PC Zoe Rice

Police arrived and Armstrong, who was slurring his speech, told an officer: “I was at fault!”

He was breath-tested and six hours after his arrest his drink-drive limit was nearly twice the legal limit.

The victim Ms Want suffered multiple fractures to her left arm and was “crying in pain”. She still needs physiotherapy treatment.

Paul Hogben, defending, said Armstrong had gone out not intending to drink alcohol but later consumed so much he woke up at the home in Tower Hamlets of a woman he didn’t even know.

He said Armstrong was going to sleep in his car but it was too cold so decided to drive, knowing he was over the limit.

“He frankly admits having a lot to drink that night and then meeting a girl. He says he still doesn’t know her name or what she looks like. He just remembers waking up in her flat.”

Mr Hogben said Armstrong, whose supervisor job involves upholstering Jaguar cars, had a meeting with bosses who told him if he was jailed he would be sacked.

Judge Heather Norton jailed him for 14 months and banned him from driving for 31 months, telling him he had consciously decided that night to take a risk and drive to his mother’s home.

After the sentencing, investigating officer Police Constable Zoe Rice said: "During police interviews Armstrong told officers he had stopped drinking around two hours before the collision. He said thought it would be OK if he stuck to the straight, main roads. Clearly this was not the case.

"The passenger in the Juke faces physiotherapy on her arm for some time to come.

"Driving dangerously can have disastrous consequences, as this case shows. And Armstrong’s 14 month sentence and driving ban show how seriously the courts take this type of offence."