Disqualified Stourbridge driver locked up after crash which injured two passengers

One of the young women fractured her back in the New Year's Eve accident - which saw the car overturn after hitting railings - and she had to undergo weeks of treatment; while the other woman had to have surgery for a knee injury.

Driver Matthew Gould smelled of intoxicants when police officers arrived on the scene but doctors refused to let them take a blood sample when he too was rushed to hospital for treatment to his injuries, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Recorder Mark Rhind told Gould, who was also subject at the time to a suspended prison sentence, that the cause of the accident on the Birmingham New Road was a "bit of a mystery".

He said it was simply impossible to know whether or not he was fit to drive because of the decision by doctors although it was clear he did smell of intoxicants.

Gould, of Brettell Lane, admitted driving while disqualified, using a car with defective tyres and having no insurance and he was further banned from driving by the Recorder for four years.

Carl Templar-Vasey, prosecuting, said Gould had been given a nine-month jail term suspended for two years for offences including dangerous driving, having no insurance and obstructing a police officer.

The Recorder ruled he should have to serve the nine months together with a further three months behind bars for the new offences before the court and he told Gould: "Your two passengers suffered extremely serious injuries. If you keep coming to court the sentences are going to get longer and longer."

Stephen Hamblett, defending, said Gould had not come out of the accident unscathed - having suffered a broken jaw that had to be repaired with the insertion of plates.

He had also broken three ribs, dislocated his shoulder and sustained cuts and bruises in an accident he had no recollection of at all.

Mr Hamblett said: "He has no memory of what happened. He is extremely sorry for the injuries suffered by the two young women."