A drunk car passenger who caused a serious crash after he yanked on the handbrake while “larking about” has walked free from court.

Two other passengers in the overloaded Citroen Xsara suffered serious injuries - one spent three weeks in hospital with broken bones and internal damage.

But a judge decided a suspended sentence and unpaid work would meet “the interests of justice” for Andrew Hennessy.

The maximum sentence that could have been imposed was seven years imprisonment.

He and five friends had been out for the night at bars when the crash happened in London Road, Greenhithe, on the evening of February 5 last year.

The 26-year-old was crammed in the back of the car with three others when he twice pulled on the handbrake.

The car veered across the carriageway, flipped on its side, mounted a pavement and ploughed through wire fencing before dipping down a 15 metre embankment and hitting a tree.

None were wearing seatbelts, Maidstone Crown Court was told.

Backseat passenger Raymond Brooks suffered fractures to his right collarbone, shoulder blade, upper pelvis and jaw, and a torn liver, damaged spleen and bruising to a lung.

Tracey Cackett, who was also in the backseat, was treated in Medway Hospital for whiplash, pain to her spine and muscular trauma, and is still recovering.

"It was an incredibly dangerous act and you are very lucky nobody died" - Recorder Sarah Elliott QC

The other passengers, her then boyfriend Steven Brooks, son of Raymond Brooks, and Daniel Pavitt, who was in the front, escaped unhurt.

Agency manager Hennessey, of Pertwee Drive, South Woodham Ferrers, Essex, admitted causing a danger to road users on the day he was due to stand trial.

The car swerved the first time he pulled the handbrake but the driver, Toby Joyce, managed to keep control of it.

The second time it happened the wheels locked and he lost control.

Joyce, 24, of Shrubbery Road, South Darenth, was said to have been speeding before the crash.

But he was cleared of causing serious injury by dangerous driving after the prosecution offered no evidence against him.

He was due to be dealt with at magistrates’ court for driving without insurance and with excess passengers and failing to stop after an accident.

Despite also being injured, Joyce fled after getting free from wreckage and calling an ambulance for his passengers.

Raymond Brooks was taken to King’s College Hospital in London and remembered little of what happened.

Sentencing Hennessy to two years imprisonment suspended for two years with 180 hours unpaid work, Recorder Sarah Elliott QC said all those in the car were clearly “the worse for wear”.

“I am satisfied there was what might be described as larking about through drink,” she said.

“It was an incredibly dangerous act and you are very lucky nobody died. Significant injuries were suffered by Raymond Brooks.

“I don’t have to determine whether you were the principal cause of this accident. It is sufficient your actions were a contributory cause.

“You will now have to live with the knowledge you have significantly impacted on other people’s lives in a very negative way.

“I trust you will learn from that because the outcome for those people is life-changing. I hope the whole process will make you think about how you behave in future.”

Recorder Elliott said she would leave the issue of compensation to the civil courts, but ordered Hennessy to pay £1,000 prosecution costs.