THE furious father of a young woman says her ex-boyfriend should be jailed and given hard labour after he crashed her car in Worcester, leaving his passenger in a coma.

Adam Drew, who lives near Great Witley, said drink-and-drug driver Christopher Knowles “should get a minimum of five years” when he is sentenced by a judge at Worcester Crown Court on January 3 next year.

Knowles, aged 28, of Freemans Close, Twyning, near Upton, admitted aggravated vehicle taking, driving with excess alcohol (42mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, above the limit of 35mcg), using a vehicle without insurance and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence at Worcester Magistrates Court this week.

He lost control of a Peugeot 206, owned by Mr Drew’s 20-year-old daughter, and crashed into a Mercedes Sprinter van in Tolladine Road, Worcester, at about 2.40am on Saturday, May 4.

Knowles’ passenger, Daniel Mark Clark, was left with a bleed on the brain, collapsed lung, broken ribs and a broken pelvis.

Mr Drew said Knowles’ actions on that fateful day left his daughter “angry and in tears” and the family £2,500 out of pocket.

District judge Nigel Cadbury said on Monday that it was “not inevitable” that Knowles, who had also taken party drug MCAT, would receive longer than six months.

Mr Drew, a 48-year-old self-employed builder, said: “He’s got to get more than six months. If he only got six months it would pay to do crime because there is no justice. 

"He could have killed the bloke in the van as well.

“He deserves everything that’s coming to him but six months is neither here nor there.”

Mr Drew said the insurance premium for his fleet of vehicles, as his daughter was a named driver on his policy, had gone up by £1,000 since the crash and he had had to buy a new car for his daughter as hers had been a write-off, costing him another £1,500.


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