Drink-drive Cambridge bungalow crash man jailed

The driver was three times over the drink-drive limit

A learner driver who crashed his car into a bungalow while three times over the drink-drive limit has been jailed.

Gigel Matei, 32, caused £15,000 of damage to the Cambridge home of disabled man Stan Miller when he ploughed through the wall in November.

Mr Miller, 75, escaped injury as he had popped to the toilet at the time.

Matei admitted criminal damage, drink-driving, having no full licence, insurance or a valid test certificate and was jailed for 14 months.

Two weeks before the crash on Campkin Road in Arbury on 11 November, Matei had been stopped for drink-driving and having only a provisional licence.

He was on bail when he lost control of his Vauxhall Corsa and smashed through the wall of Mr Miller's home, where the pensioner had been watching television and writing Christmas cards.

Gigel Matei was jailed for 14 months and banned from driving for 41 months

The car was still embedded in the house the morning after the crash

Matei's car careered through the wooden fence, across the small drive, smashed through the bungalow's front window and wall and ended up embedded in Mr Miller's living room.

"If I hadn't got up for the loo I don't know if I'd be here," Mr Miller said at the time.

Mr Miller had been at his living room table moments before the car crashed through the wall

Police said it was "simple luck nobody was killed".

At Cambridge Crown Court, Matei, of Turpyn Court in Cambridge, admitted all charges and he was also banned from driving for 41 months.

PC Anthea Heap said: "Matei's reckless actions put both himself and those around him in danger."