A BRIDE was forced to go up the aisle in a wheelchair after a man crashed head on into the car she and her fiancé were travelling in during the run-up to their wedding.

Rebecca and Tim Fletcher were hit by Martin Delves, 37, in May 2014 after he veered out of his lane on the A44 and into oncoming traffic.

At Oxford Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Zoe Smith said the couple, from Lancashire, were forced to cancel their honeymoon to the Far East because of their injuries.

Delves, of Cotswold Meadow, Witney, was jailed for two-and-a-half years after a jury found him guilty of causing serious injury by careless driving.

Judge Smith told 37-year-old Delves: "You were the cause of a terrible collision.

"You drove straight into a vehicle driven by Mr Fletcher and as a result he and his wife were both really seriously injured."

Mr Fletcher suffered soft tissue injuries and a fractured right hand. Mrs Fletcher was taken by air ambulance to the John Radcliffe with soft tissue injuries, impact to her pelvis and lower abdomen, lacerations to her face and a fractured ankle.

Although Delves provided a blood sample to test for the amount of alcohol in his system, it had clotted and could not be used in the investigation.

Judge Smith said: "The police visited you later in hospital that evening and both officers said your breath smelt strongly of alcohol.

"We do not know what the reading might have been. But it is clear you were driving at a time when your ability was impaired as a result of the consumption of alcohol."

Jim Harrison, defending, said Delves had visited his doctor for advice on how to help battle his reliance on alcohol.

He said: "He has not given up on asking for help.

"He knows he is going to go to prison today and he knows the real challenge will come when he returns to the real world.

"What a prison sentence will do is enable him to get a foothold in sobriety."

Delves was disqualified from driving for eight years and will have to take and extended driving test before he is allowed behind the wheel.