A CONSTRUCTION firm boss has been jailed after crashing a tipper van into a coach and fleeing the scene before refusing to give a breath sample to police.

Oliver Hooker was seen by officers driving a Ford Transit tipper van erratically and without a front number plate before they pulled him over.

The 32-year-old, who was suspended from driving at the time, began acting “aggressively” with officers who noticed he smelt strongly of alcohol and he was detained in a police van.

A few minutes earlier he had also crashed into an Astons Coaches coach and knocked off one of its wing mirrors before driving off, it later emerged, prosecutor Shaquat Reaz told magistrates on May 23.

On being taken to the police station, the defendant gave custody staff his brother, Jake Hooker’s, name and said he couldn’t give a breath sample because he “felt unwell”.

He previously had been the driver in an accident in which his sister's partner died.

Belinda Ariss, defending, said her client had been “drinking heavily the night before” he was pulled over in Pickersleigh Road, Malvern, at around 2.55pm on February 27.

She said he was “about to start a large job worth thousands of pounds to the business” and the tipper needed moving onto site, but Hooker had been “let down at the last minute”.

“He foolishly decided to move it himself,” she said.

The solicitor went on to say while driving, the defendant “took his eye off the ball for a few seconds” prior to the crash and later panicked and gave his brother’s details to police.

Ms Ariss told the court her client “drinks to excess” every other night and has an unenviable driving record as a result – all stemming from a car accident in which one of his passengers died.

She said Hooker had been behind the wheel when he was involved in a crash, which seriously injured himself and his sister, and killed her partner.

“He struggles with the guilt and drinking alcohol takes that guilt away,” continued Ms Ariss.

Hooker set up the “growing” construction and landscaping business in the last few months, the court heard.

But his driving disqualification meant an employee had to pick him up from his home in Gloucester Road, Malvern, every day, while a long-term relationship broke down due to his drinking.

The defendant was given a community order in August last year but having breached it, was given a suspended sentence in March.

Jayne Stewart, of the probation service, said Hooker had continually missed appointments with his probation manager and arranging anything of this nature is “just a waste”.

He also had a curfew from 7pm to 5am, and Ms Ariss added: “He has no social life, he can’t have a social life, he accepts that.”

Hooker accepted charges of driving without insurance and whilst disqualified, obstructing an officer, failure to provide a specimen, failing to stop after a road accident, driving with no front registration and driving without due care and attention.

Magistrates disqualified him from driving for four years and jailed him for 20 weeks.

He was also ordered to pay £250 in costs.