A 43-year-old van driver who was over the cocaine limit mounted a pavement and smashed into a pedestrian - breaking his back and breastbone and leaving him almost two centimetres shorter because of his injuries, a court has been told.

CCTV footage of Wayne Anderson's van rounding a bend and then going up onto the footway and flooring the oncoming pedestrian was shown at Gloucester Crown Court before he was sentenced to a 16-month suspended jail term.

Warning: The following video might be upsetting.

The court was told he had been looking down into the footwell of his van and not paying attention to his driving when the crash happened at Shurdington, near Cheltenham, on December 12, 2021.

Anderson of Ladysmith Road, was driving in his white sign-written van along Yarnolds in Shurdington at 10.20am that day when he failed to take the right hand bend and careered straight into the 60-year-old pedestrian, who was walking on the footpath towards a local convenience store.

The CCTV footage showed the van can approaching the bend before going too wide and mounting the pavement. Moments later the van hit the pedestrian, who had just walked into view from a side street.

Anderson carried on driving before returning to the scene where he found that the pedestrian lying motionless, having sustained a broken back and a broken sternum.

The court was told that the victim had to undergo surgery, which meant that he lost about one to two centimetres in height.

Anderson was subsequently arrested for the offence and was found to be intoxicated through the use of cocaine.

He disputed, however, that he was impaired due to the use of drugs and maintained he did not know how the cocaine had got in to his system.

He stated that he had been looking at something in the footwell of the passenger side of the car when the collision occurred.

The Crown Prosecution Service chose not to argue the drugs issue in a fact-finding hearing and accepted that Anderson was not impaired by the cocaine, despite being more than twice over the legal limit for driving,

Anderson was found guilty of driving whilst under the influence of drugs and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Judge Jason Taylor KC told Anderson: "What's become apparent throughout this hearing is that you were effectively looking in the footwell of the passenger side of the car when the collision occurred.

"The injuries that you caused were significant and this has resulted in the victim losing about one to two centimetres in height. Fortunately, additional surgery is not necessary.

"The victim's victim personal statement explains how he had to take off over two months off work and has had to give up his martial arts interest.

"The analysis of your blood reveals that you had cocaine in your system. The tolerance level for drugs is effectively zero. Your basis of plea suggests that you've no idea how that was ingested.

"But be that as it may, the fact that it was present must be reflected in your sentence, even though there was no visible sign of impairment.

"It's important to stress that there is no suggestion whatsoever that your actions that day were caused, or contributed to, by the use of drugs in your system. The inattention was caused by you looking in the footwell.

"You are a man who is effectively of good character. There are no legal guidelines for causing serious injury by dangerous driving, but I take the view that looking in the footwell goes beyond that required of paying attention to where you are driving.

"It's not the same as glancing around seeing what is on the passenger seat. You vision was obviously right down in that footwell while paying no attention to the road in front of you.

"In this instance you turned your car into a weapon. This offence passes the custody threshold."

The judge sentenced Anderson to a prison term of 16 months and suspended it for 18 months. He ordered him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and pay court costs of £425 and a mandatory surcharge.

Anderson was disqualified from driving for two years for both causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving while under the influence of drugs and he was ordered to take an extended retest.