A DRINK-drive father who ploughed head-long into another car with his children as passengers has been jailed for 20 months.

Andrew Paul, 35, was furious after claiming he was being denied access to his youngest son, by the child’s mother in Blackburn, Preston Crown Court was told.

So he set off home to Haslingden “in a rage”, with his eight-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son in the front and back of his Vauxhall Vectra, the court heard.

Two off-duty police officers later saw Paul’s vehicle speeding along Roundhill Road, its tyres smoking.

Prosecutor Nicola Carroll said one of the officers had to take evasive action to avoid a crash.

But it was not long before Paul lost control of the Vectra and he veered onto the wrong side of the road, into the path of Jason O’Brien’s Ford Focus.

The head-on smash left the victim with three fractures to his foot and severe bruising, among other injuries, the court heard.

Miss Carroll said he had to take four months off work and had to eat into his savings to get through Christmas that year.

Mr O’Brien told police afterwards he feared, shortly before the impact, he was not going to get out of the collision alive, she added.

The defendant’s two children also suffered bruising in the crash and had to be taken to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, the court was told.

Police arrested Paul, once he too had been treated by medics, and when he undertook a blood test, it was found he had 104mg of alcohol per 100ml. The legal limit is 80mg. He also only had an expired provisional licence.

Paul, formerly of Harwood Road, Rishton, but later of Haslingden, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving, driving with excess alcohol, having no insurance and having no driving licence. He was also banned from driving for 34 months.

Jailing him, Judge Sara Dodd said: “This was not a momentary of lapse of concentration - this was a prolonged incident of anger-fuelled driving.”

Duncan Nightingale, defending, said his client had no previous convictions and had co-operated with the police from the moment of his arrest, admitting his own driving was “appalling”.

The court heard that the two children in the car were now understood to be living with their mother.