Drink driver who crashed into family's car jailed

Police tracked down his badly-damaged car and found it with two tyres off the rims.

Michael Jones, 27, admitted driving with excess alcohol, dangerous driving and failing to stop after a road accident.

At Mold Crown Court he was jailed for nine months and disqualified from driving for three years.

He was also ordered to take an extended driving test.

Jones had been driving his VW Passatt towards Penybontfawr on the B5480 at around 12.30am on March 29 when he hit another vehicle head-on as he came around a bend, said prosecuting barrister Michael Whitty.

The defendant was on the wrong side of the road with no headlights when he crashed into Geraint Evans who was in his car with his wife and 18-year-old daughter.

After the crash, Mr Evans got out of his car to speak to the other driver but Jones reversed and drove away.

Police later found his vehicle abandoned and traced him to his home where he was found in bed.

Tests later showed he had a breath alcohol reading of 99 microgrammes of alcohol compared to the legal limit of 35.

The Judge, Mr Recorder Wyn Lloyd Jones, said the reading had been taken about four hours after the accident so Jones must have been more than three times the drink-drive limit at the time.

Simon Rogers, defending, said: "He knows he has behaved foolishly and it is sheer good fortune there were no serious injuries.

"He cannot believe he has done something so atrocious."

Mr Rogers said Jones, of Bron y Gaer, Llanfyllin, came from a good, supportive family and was "shocked" by his behaviour.

The Recorder said: "I accept you are genuinely sorry and have no previous convictions.

"People who know you speak highly of you. But the really aggravating feature in this is that you were so heavily over the limit."