Adding insult to injury: Drink-driving tattooist who left a mother and daughter in critical condition after 60mph smash sticks up middle finger as he's spared jail

A drunk driver who left a mother and daughter with devastating injuries in a horrific 60mph crash flicked the middle finger as he walked free from court.

Tattooist Scott Roe, 39, ploughed his Mercedes CLA220 into an Audi after he 'got bored' of travelling behind another car which was sticking to the 30mph speed limit.

Emergency crews dashed to Heath Road, in Bedworth, Warks., following the horror crash on July 13 last year.

Roe escaped unhurt but the driver of the Audi, Chelsea Sidwell, 19, and her mother Kelly Merridew, 39, were trapped in the wreckage for two hours.

Chelsea suffered a smashed left knee, ankle and toes, as well as ligament damage and was in wheelchair for seven weeks following the crash.

Her mother suffered a shattered pelvis, a dislocated right knee and a badly bruised shoulder.

Roe was handed a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work

Roe, of Coventry, admitted two charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving and drink driving at Warwick Crown Court.

He was handed a 16-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months and ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work.

He was also ordered to pay £535 costs and was banned from driving for four years.

Sentencing him on Friday, Recorder Francesca Levett said: 'This was a seriously dangerous manoeuvre executed in the briefest of moments, and no doubt your judgement was clouded by the amount of alcohol you had consumed.

'Your speed was excessive, estimated to have been twice the speed limit in that area.

'What followed was the consequence of your decision to overtake when it was clearly dangerous to do so, and the injuries caused to Miss Sidwell and her mother were extremely serious.

'I have to balance whether the offences really are so serious that only prison is justified.

'I am just persuaded that I can suspend this sentence.'

The tattooist  escaped unhurt but the driver of the Audi, Chelsea Sidwell, 19, and her mother Kelly Merridew, 39, were trapped in the wreckage for two hours

Roe was overtaking a car which was travelling at the 30mph limit when he smashed into Miss Sidwell and her mother.

Sally Cairns, prosecuting, said: 'It was dusk and it was raining, and the driver of the car he was overtaking in the 30mph zone estimated that he was doing at least 60mph.

'Roe did not pull in and smashed head-on into the Audi spinning round 180 degrees.

'The bonnet of the Audi, which ended up on the grass verge, was crushed, and Miss Sidwell and her mother were trapped inside.

'The emergency services attended and found Miss Sidwell and Mrs Merridew trapped and in considerable pain, and Miss Sidwell was stuck for two hours before being released and taken to hospital.'

The court heard that Miss Sidwell had been forced to give up her job working with children as a result of her injuries.

Roe, who had two previous convictions for drink driving, was also taken to hospital where a blood test showed he was over the legal alcohol limit.

He told the police he had been driving behind a car which was doing 20mph, and that he was 'bored of waiting' behind it, so overtook but lost control.

Andrew Wilkins, defending, said: 'It's a case in which it is a cascade of things that go wrong.

'It all starts to go wrong when he makes the decision to drive after drinking.

'Once he had done that he then, perhaps as a consequence, makes the decision to overtake a vehicle that's moving too slowly for his liking, and he does so at speed.

'Mr Roe is horrified at the consequences of his actions.'