A factory worker drove the wrong way along the M20 at 80mph... after making a 50-hour trip from Poland with no food and little sleep.

As he headed north, Krzysztof Stopko bizarrely did a “juddering ‘U’ turn” as stunned motorists watched in horror.

Then, ignoring the warnings from other drivers, the 35-year-old travelled for two-and-a-half miles between junctions 10 and 11 towards oncoming vehicles.

Some vehicles managed to swerve away but Stopko's car eventually smashed into a Skoda driven by Phillipa Piper and her boyfriend Sean Bowman as they headed to Ashford to buy an outfit for a friend’s wedding.

Seafarer Ms Piper suffered multiple fractures and was confined to a wheelchair for weeks after the smash in April and Mr Bowman has also been unable to work since.

But now a judge has heard that Stopko – who claimed not to have eaten during the trip and drunk only one can of Red Bull – could remember nothing of the crash after being injured.

Neither could he explain why he did the ‘U’ turn while heading to his home in Basingstoke after arriving that morning in Dover on a ferry from France.

Now Judge Heather Norton has jailed him for 32 months after telling the couple - who were sat in the public gallery - that will seem like "a paltry sentence”.

She said she was restricted by a maximum five-year term for causing injury by dangerous driving, which Stopko admitted, and therefore was entitled to a reduction.

Prosecutor Craig Evans told Canterbury Crown Court how Stopko, who had lived in the UK for 11 years, had visited his home country in March, returning the following month.

He later told police that after spending a day sight-seeing in France he boarded an overnight ferry to Kent – a 50-hour trip with no food and little sleep.

Judge Norton told him: “You drove back from Poland through a number of countries with only one stop. When you were on the ferry you didn’t sleep.

“At Dover you stopped in a lay-by for some hours but on your own admission you did not sleep or eat. In the course of that journey you didn’t eat or sleep properly for 50 hours.

“Deprivation of food, drink and adequate rest for that length of time is in itself dangerous when you got behind a wheel.”

She added that he had driven at up to 80mph ignoring obvious warnings for a prolonged period of time.

The judge was then shown CCTV footage from three cars revealing Stopkotravelling at speed in the opposite carriageway.

“That was at serious as it could possibly get causing an obvious risk of serious if not death to other roadusers.

“How it is you manage to avoid more carnage than you did cause is hard to understand. The accident was inevitable causing life-changing injuries to the two victims, causing them extreme mental and physical injuries, “ she added.

She banned Stopko from driving for five years.