A teenager who drove into a group of night club revellers outside the Amadeus Night Club, Strood convinced prosecutors it was an accident and not road rage, a court heard.

Erin Ali, 18, from London was given a six month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months at Canterbury Crown Court on Friday

He was also banned from driving for a year and ordered to do 200 hours of unpaid work.

Ali’s not guilty pleas to four charges of attempting to cause grievous harm were accepted by prosecutors.

The cafe worker pleaded guilty to two lesser charges of assault and driving dangerously.

He escaped a drink-drive conviction because he was asleep when police officers tried to get a urine sample after his arrest.

Ali, from London, said he had not intended to use his VW Polo “as a weapon” outside last August when he hit two of a group of people he claimed had attacked him minutes earlier.

Catherine Donnolly, prosecuting, said: “Darren Tanser hit the bonnet and the windscreen and rolled over the roof and falling to the ground. His friend Dan Corley was struck by the front of the vehicle.”

Mr Tanser received treatment for head, arm and leg injuries but Mr Corley escaped with a minor finger injury, the court heard.

Ali, who had been drinking, told police he hadn’t realised the people he hit were part of the same group who had struck him earlier.

Eloise Marshall, defending, said Ali had not started the “unpleasant incident” and although he admitted driving while drunk he denied driving straight at this group.

Judge Nash said the fact the CPS had accepted Ali’s account had left him in an “almost impossible position in passing a logical and sensible sentence”.

He said: “Fortunately for Ali, the prosecution have accepted that basis of plea.

“I will not say that basis beggars belief, for that would be an exaggeration. But it troubles me somewhat and my hands are now tied, fortunately for him.

“Because if he had used the car in an act of road rage and used it as a weapon, he would have been looking at several years in youth custody.”