A Serco employee who crashed into a lamppost drove on for half a mile on three wheels before telling police: “I’m drunk.”

Dad-of-one Lee Wiles, 32, left a trail of debris as he swerved through Canterbury in his Vauxhall Astra after hitting the street light in Rheims Way.

Stunned onlookers told how sparks flew from the road before the damaged vehicle was eventually stopped by officers in Westgate Court Avenue.

Now a judge has jailed grass-cutter Wiles for four months, telling him: “You could have killed somebody. It was a miracle you didn’t.”

Canterbury Crown Court heard Wiles, of Knight Avenue, was more than double the legal alcohol limit when he was arrested in March this year.

Prosecutor Mary Jacobson told how police officers spotted his black Astra travelling along St Dunstan’s at 9.30pm.

“The manner it was being driven was very erratic and it was swerving across the road,” she said. “The officers also noticed it had no back wheel.

"You could have killed somebody. It was a miracle you didn't" - Recorder Jonathan Higgs QC, to Wiles

“The police followed it as it went up Whitstable Road and into Westgate Court Avenue, where they pulled the Astra over.

“Officers then saw substantial damage to the car, quite apart from the back wheel axle, and there was damage to the windscreen.

“The defendant kept repeating that he was drunk but the officers didn’t need to be told that because of the smell of alcohol.”

Ms Jacobson added that officers became concerned when Wiles appeared to lose consciousness and summoned a paramedic.

The court heard how the Astra had struck a street light and junction box before “leaving a trail of wreckage” for half a mile.

Christopher Wray, defending, said Wiles’ six-year relationship with the mother of his child had ended and “he found it difficult to come to terms with it and started drinking”, but since the incident he had taken steps to address his alcohol problems.

Wiles, who admitted driving dangerously and being over the drink-drive limit, was jailed for four months and banned from driving for two years.

The judge, Recorder Jonathan Higgs QC, told him: “The courts cannot simply overlook that sort of driving and deal with you in a non-custodial way.

"It is sad because you are a hard working and decent man in every other respect, but I would not be doing my duty to other road users or pedestrians by not punishing someone who drives like this.”