The Magistrate’s Court heard that Lloyd Rhys Evans (28) had drunk ten bottles of beer at a friend’s house in St Saviour before attempting to drive home to St Martin in the early hours of Sunday 12 March.
Assistant legal adviser Sophie Lister, prosecuting, said the police had seen him driving at high speed and turned on their blue light and flashed their headlights to alert him to pull over, but he did not do so.
She said: ‘Police had to accelerate to 80 miles per hour to catch up with him.’
As they pursued him he went around a roundabout the wrong way and through its central reservation. Evans crashed just south of Maufant Village.
She added: ‘The car was on its roof and the police saw him crawling out of a window. They could smell intoxicant on his breath.’
Evans was taken to hospital, where he was found to have no injuries.
Ms Lister also said he had a previous conviction for drink-driving in Wales nine years earlier.
Advocate Sarah Dale, defending, pointed out that Evans had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity and had been open and co-operative with the investigation.
She added: ‘It was the anniversary of his grandfather’s death. He has suffered symptoms of post-traumatic stress since the death of his grandfather.’
She described the drink-driving as ‘a stupid decision’ and one that would stay with him for the rest of his life.
‘Thankfully no passengers were in the car and no one was harmed,’ she added. ‘Mr Evans has been suffering serious emotional difficulties, and this should be seen in that context. He is not someone who ordinarily goes out to offend.’
Assistant Magistrate Peter Harris, presiding, accepted the mitigation but said he had no choice but to impose a jail sentence.
He said: ‘This driving was highly dangerous. It was only good fortune that no one was seriously injured, or worse.
‘It gives me no pleasure to sentence you to custody, but this is so serious that it cannot be avoided.’
He said he was not going to impose a separate sentence for failing to stop. He imposed four months’ imprisonment for dangerous driving and five months for drink-driving, with the two terms to run consecutively.
Evans has also been banned from driving for three years and will have to pass a Jersey driving test before he is allowed to drive again.
