A designated driver who crashed into a wall when an overtake went wrong, seriously injuring four friends he was giving a lift, has been spared jail.

Driver Harry Carter, 20, was just 18-years-old when the incident happened in the early hours of August 15, 2021.

Carter had been on a night out in Durham City and was the group’s designated driver when he tried to overtake another vehicle on the A688 at around 3am.

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But Durham Crown Court heard that he didn’t give himself enough time to make the manoeuvre and his ‘sporty’ Ford Focus with a personalised number plate clipped the curb before losing control, narrowly missing the car he tried to overtake and crashing into a brick industrial garage.

The moment of the crash was captured on CCTV.

His four passengers were all left with serious injuries including a fractured pelvis, broken nose and one was unable to walk for six weeks.

The court heard he hadn’t consumed any alcohol that evening and was driving within the speed limit.

At police interview Carter, of Station Town, Wingate, County Durham said he thought the road conditions were to blame but admitted that if he had driven the same way on his driving test he wouldn’t have passed.

During a hearing on May 2, he pleaded guilty to four counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

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Carter, who the court heard was previously of good character, was sentenced on Tuesday (May 30) to 13 months jail time, suspended for two years, and placed under a curfew from 7pm-7am for five months.

He was also disqualified from driving and will have to sit an extended re-test to be allowed back behind the wheel.

Sentencing him Judge James Adkin warned him that if he had been drinking he would have been sent to prison.