A MAN who had never passed a driving test drove home from the pub after drinking with his two children in the car.

Blackburn magistrates heard Andrew Paul reached speeds of 70mph in his Vauxhall Vectra, ignored junction warnings, overtook on the blind brow of a hill and forced his way past other vehicles before hitting another car head on.

The driver of the other vehicle, a Ford Focus, suffered multiple injuries and the defendant’s children had to be taken to hospital with seatbelt injuries.

Paul, 34, of Harwood Road, Rishton, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol, without insurance and without a licence on August 16.

He was sent on bail to Preston Crown Court to be sentenced on March 18 after the magistrates ruled their powers of punishment were insufficient.

Catherine Allan, prosecuting, had been drinking when he decided to drive to his then home in Haslingden with his 10-year-old son in the front seat and his eight-year-old daughter in the back.

The head-on collision occurred in Roundhill Road, Haslingden, near the Farmer’s Glory Indian restaurant.

“He has driven in a dangerous manner and it was fortunate nobody was killed,” said Miss Allan.

The driver of the other car involved in the collision, a 48-year-old man from Haslingden, suffered a triple fracture of his foot, a dislocated toe and injuries to his knees.

He was off work for four months and his car was written off.