A DRINK driver who subjected his girlfriend to a terror ride that began with her half in and half out of the car and ended with a high-speed crash into a telegraph pole has been jailed.

York Crown Court heard a recording of the woman screaming and shouting “my foot is in the door” at the start of the 20-minute journey in Wilberforce Avenue, Clifton, York.

The passenger door was still open and Shane Paul Farrar, 32, who had been drinking, performed wheel spins as he drove off with the woman inside, said Graham O’Sullivan, prosecuting.

Just after midnight on July 24, 2017, he crashed the Renault Clio at 68mph into a telegraph pole in Ox Carr Lane, Strensall - where the speed limit is 40mph - making no effort to brake or avoid it and the car rebounded into a tree.

The woman suffered broken vertebrae and other broken bones and was in hospital for days before she discharged herself against medical advice.

In a probation report before the court Farrar claimed to be an “exceptionally talented driver”.

His barrister Lucy Brown said: “It is unclear whether the defendant will ever be able to drive again.”

She said the crash had left him in a days-long coma and he was now confined to a wheelchair after surgery, facing further surgery.

Farrar had drink and drug problems and had made several suicide attempts since, the court heard.

“Primarily you are the author of your own misfortune,” Judge Andrew Stubbs QC told him.

He said the driving had been “appalling” and the woman had tried to save herself by grabbing the steering wheel to stop him driving.

Farrar, of Wilberforce Avenue, York, pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and was jailed for 31 months.

He was also banned from driving for six years and ordered to take an extended driving test before driving alone again.

He had been sentenced for drink driving by magistrates at an earlier hearing and had a previous conviction for drink driving.

Mr O’Sullivan said the prosecution did not say Farrar drove deliberately at the pole, but was reckless as to whether he would crash the car.

Miss Brown said the couple had a volatile relationship and had argued just before the start of the journey, which included a pause in a car park.