A DRINK driver more than three-and-a-half times the limit got behind the wheel and crashed into three other cars before eventually stopping, a court heard.

Mandeep Rai, of Bournemouth Road, Chandlers Ford, was jailed for 16 weeks after pleading guilty to driving with 273 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

The court was told the 28-year-old, who was convicted for a similar driving offence two years ago, had left work early and gone out for drinks with his colleagues.

After consuming around five pints as well as shorts he left to drive home, which was about four miles away.

The court heard Rai was driving on the wrong side of the road and collided with a car which was coming from the opposite direction. Instead of stopping he carried on and hit another car, only avoiding a head-on collision because the other vehicle swerved.

Rai carried on driving before eventually stopping after smashing into the back of a stationary car sat waiting to pull out on a roundabout. No one was injured but the vehicles involved were all damaged.

The court heard Rai had a good job as a sales advisor for the Royal Bank of Scotland and was the main breadwinner for his family, paying a large portion of the bills and mortgage for his nine-bedroom family home.

Mitigating Charlotte McLeod said Rai's father went into cardiac arrest in August 2015 where his heart stopped for around 20 minutes.

She added the defendant saved his father's life using CPR but as a result of the incident, his father suffered brain damage which meant he was left as his family's main breadwinner.

Miss McLeod said Rai suffered from flashbacks and anxiety but had not sought counselling because it was not something done in his culture.

She added: "When he drinks, he drinks to excess and his thinking skills when he drinks are poor. He was going to get a taxi and he does not know why he got in the car - it was a very poor decision and he accepts that.

"When I went through the paperwork about the damages he was very shocked about what had happened."

Judge Lorraine Morgan said: "It was a criminally dangerous decision... You drove regardless of the consequence to others."

Rai was also ordered to pay a £115 victim surcharge and was disqualified from driving for four years.

He was told he would need to take a retest before he could drive again.