A SPEEDING dangerous driver who left a woman seriously injured after crashing his car while under the influence of cocaine has been jailed.

Gary Currie, 32, who has previous convictions for drink-driving, was four times the legal drug-drive limit when he crashed his Vauxhall Astra into a lamppost and a parked car on the Grane Road, Haslingden, last year, a court heard.

Prosecutor Stephen Parker said Currie had been repeatedly warned about his speed by one of his two female passengers.

And when he lost control of his vehicle on a left hand bend close to the junction with Highfield Street he was driving one and a half times over the speed limit.

The court heard that front seat passenger Keah Halstead, who had not been wearing a seatbelt throughout the journey from Blackpool, suffered a fractured hip, leg and ankle injuries as a result of the crash on the evening of May 21, 2016.

Backseat passenger Marla Yates was not seriously injured.

Mr Parker said: "By the time they were driving along the Grane Road Miss Halstead would say the defendant's driving had caused her some concern.

"She had told him to slow down on several occasions.

"When she glanced at the speedometer on the 50mph stretch she saw he was doing 70.

"They then came to the 30mph zone where the road became narrow and there is a residential area.

"As the defendant was going around a left-hand bend where there were parked cars on both sides of the road he has gone too fast. He was travelling in the estimation of the police between 40 and 50mph.

"He's gone straight across the bend. He hit the pavement, missed the first two parked cars, hit a lamppost, hit a Ford Ka and caused substantial damage to the Vauxhall Astra he was travelling in."

Mr Parker said when police arrived at the crash they described Currie as being 'very agitated, sweating profusely and constantly licking his lips'.

Although he passed the roadside drink-driving test, blood samples found he was four times over the legal limit for cocaine.

As a result of her injuries, which has left scarring, Miss Halstead had to have permanent metal pins and plates in her ankle.

In a victim impact statement partly read out by Mr Parker, Miss Halstead told the court how she had been left in pain, self-conscious about her appearance and unable to enjoy certain activities with her son.

She added: "I can't express how angry and upset I feel about my decision to get into the car that night."

In a pre-sentence report Currie, a heavy plant driver of Canning Street, Bury, expressed remorse for causing the crash and said he wished it was him who had been injured.

Defending, James Heyworth said: "He accepts it's his actions and his actions alone which caused the accident. He accepts full responsibility for the accident and Miss Halstead's injuries."

Currie pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and drug-driving.

Sentencing Currie to two years in prison, Judge Beverley Lunt, said he had been driving at 'grossly excessive speed' at a time his capability had been reduced by cocaine.

She said: "This collision was entirely your fault."

Currie was also banned from driving for three years and ordered to take an extended driving test.