A DRINK-DRIVER who killed a 23-year-old teaching assistant was warned he faces jail when he appeared before a crown court judge.

Simon Snow, 28, of High Street, Eastchurch, Sheppey, was at the wheel of a Subaru Impreza when it crashed on the A249 Brielle Way at Queenborough, Sheppey, on January 8.

Jody Clulow, of Oak Lane, Minster, near Sheerness, was a back seat passenger in the car. It struck the fence of a storage yard next to Alsford Timber just after 3am. Two other passengers, a man and a woman, both aged 23, were also injured.

The woman, from Queenborough, suffered multiple injuries including a fractured skull, broken legs and cuts. She was taken to the Medway Maritime Hospital at Gillingham before being transferred to King’s College Hospital, London.

The man, who was a front seat passenger, was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Snow denied causing the death of Miss Clulow by dangerous driving while unfit through drink, but admitted causing her death by careless driving when the proportion of alcohol in his blood was over the prescribed limit.

Judge Jeremy Carey, sitting at Maidstone Crown Court, rejected a request by his counsel, Richard Bendall, for a pre-sentence report. But he agreed that the case should be adjourned to give his legal team more time to prepare mitigation.

Releasing Snow on bail until October 2 the judge told him: “You have pleaded guilty to causing the death of Jody Clulow by your driving whilst you were intoxicated.

“The sentencing court will have little alternative but to reflect society’s view of this kind of conduct by the imposition of a custodial sentence.”

The question for the court would not be whether, but for how long, he added.

Judge Carey also imposed an interim driving ban for two years.