A smirking danger driver was filmed by his partner drinking alcohol at the wheel moments before smashing into a lamp-post and seriously injuring her.
Dane Wood and his girlfriend were driving to pick up a takeaway when she recorded him in a state of "joyful exuberance" sipping from a gin glass and smiling at the camera. Shortly afterwards he sped through a red light and crashed.
His partner was left slumped in the car and people who came upon the scene thought she was dead. By good fortune, it turned out she only had a broken ankle. As she lay unconscious, Wood posed as a helpful passer-by and denied he had been driving at the time.
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Newcastle Crown Court heard the crash happened on the A183 in Sunderland on October 22 last year. Graeme O'Sullivan, prosecuting, said: "The defendant drove his car with one passenger, his partner, at excessive speed. He passed straight through a red traffic light at a junction with a roundabout then crashed into a lamp-post.
"This caused extensive damage to the car. The collision caused an injury to his partner."
The court heard she had to be removed from the car and Wood started pretending he had not been driving. Mr O'Sullivan said: "He was stood by the car and said he had chanced upon the collision and he was not the driver, notwithstanding the fact it was his girlfriend. He repeated the same to the police."
The court heard Wood was over the drink drive limit but he was not charged with excess alcohol in time. Mr O'Sullivan said: "His partner's mobile phone had footage of him driving with one hand on the wheel with both of them drinking from what appeared to be a gin glass or glasses of alcohol. The footage shows him appearing to hold a gin glass moments before the accident.
Wood, 28, of Rosedale Crescent, Houghton-le-Spring, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was sentenced to 15 months suspended for 18 months with 120 hours unpaid work, a £600 fine and a two year driving ban.
Recorder James Wood QC told him: "You drove at excessive and unlawful speed through a red light at what lay observers thought was 90 to 100mph. You did that with excessive alcohol in your blood but by reason of delay you were not prosecuted for that but I have regard to it.
"You crashed your car into a lamp-post, writing it off and leaving your girlfriend unconscious, with what were thought to be, at the time by those at the scene, catastrophic injuries. In fact, and very luckily for you and her, she only suffered a broken ankle.
"Your partner's mobile phone was examined and it appears at the time you were driving with a glass of alcohol in one hand, obviously not particularly concentrating on the road. You seem in a state of joyful exuberance with her."
Tony Davis, defending, said the road had a 60mph limit and he was not far in excess of that. He said: "But he accepts by his plea in those circumstances and prevailing conditions it was too fast and that has caused the collision with the lamp-post."
Mr Davis added: "He is a hard-working young man who is providing for four dependants by way of children from his previous relationship, his partner's children, who he treats as his own and she is about to give birth on October 12.
"He has genuine remorse and this was a brief error of judgement. He went out with his girlfriend to pick up a takeaway meal.
"He was not driving greatly in excess of the legal limit for alcohol. The glass in hand is, frankly, not a good feature of this case. She regrets filming him doing it.
"They decided to pick up the takeaway rather than having it delivered. They went a short distance and it was a silly, stupid error which they have both suffered from."
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